Workshop series - Department of Physics

Aims of the workshop series

As part of their degree programme, students should also acquire the skills to present specialist content in order to prepare them for their future careers. If they pursue a career in research after graduation, they must regularly present their research results in the form of lectures or posters at scientific conferences or in the form of papers in scientific journals. If they wish to pursue a career in business, they will also have to regularly present their projects in written and spoken form.

Three presentation formats are addressed in the workshop series on presenting specialised content in physics : Scientific writing, giving talks and creating posters. In addition, one workshop deals with the comprehensive topic of literature research and analysis. So far, the workshops have been implemented in presence according to the flipped classroom approach in courses on the Bachelor's degree programme in Physics and the Master's degree programme in Materials Science.

This online offer should enable everyone interested to individually improve their own communication skills and to deepen them for their next challenge (thesis defence, conference presentation, seminar talk, ...).

Interested teachers can contact Anna Bauer for the materials and further information on implementing the materials.

Team

Dr Anna Bauer (left) and Dr Katharina Brassat (right)

We, Anna Bauer and Katharina Brassat, are a team with a background in didactics of physics and in science of physics/chemistry. Together, we have developed this workshop programme to support science students in acquiring communication skills for presenting scientific content in various typical formats and to share our experiences with them. In 2020, we received the Teaching Award for Young Scientists for the basic idea and implementation.

Anna Bauer and Michael Rüsing were also successful in acquiring funding from the Foundation for Innovation in Teaching and can therefore expand the workshop series to include the topic of "Scientific Writing".

Didactic approach

All workshops are didactically structured according to the Cognitive Apprenticeship approach [1] in order to achieve the highest possible degree of subject relevance and accompanied learning growth. In simple terms, the didactic principle can be described as "demonstrate, imitate, do it yourself". In the individual learning videos, the lecturer uses an example from his everyday research (report, presentation, poster) to make his cognitive processes transparent to the students when creating and presenting the various formats and derives corresponding action steps for the learners. After short input phases, the students have the opportunity to apply the presented procedure to their own projects. In the subsequent self-study phase, learners receive further support through coaching.

[1] Collins, A., Brown, J. S., & Newman, S. E. (1989). Cognitive-apprenticeship: Teaching the crafts of reading, writing, and mathematics. In L. B. Resnick (Ed.), Knowing, learning, and instruction. Essays in honour of Robert Glaser. Hillsdale, NJ: LEA, 32-42.

How can the materials be used?

Each workshop module consists of learning videos, tasks to work on yourself, support materials and literature references. These will also be made available as OER in the future.

Teachers can efficiently incorporate the materials when preparing a presentation/poster/report in the course.

Learners can also use the materials for self-study without further integration into courses.

If the videos and specific tasks are processed chronologically , the presentation or poster can be planned and created 'on the side'!

Workshop module Literature research and analysis

While general tips on literature research and correct citation are given in all workshop modules, the (advanced) workshop Literature Research and Analysis explicitly deals with (subject-specific) research strategies, evaluation of specialised literature and the efficient reading of such articles. If possible, the following materials should be worked on chronologically.

Supplement:

Introduction to the use of Citavi

Workshop module Designing and giving presentations

In the workshop module Giving & Designing Lectures , the typical target audience, structure and conception of scientific lectures, slide design, presentation style and dealing with questions are discussed. The following materials should, if possible, be worked on chronologically.

Materials:

Preparation (pdf)
Video Part 1: Talk preparation
Part 2: Slide design (pdf)
Part 3: Presentation style and Q&A (pdf)
Checklist (pdf)

Poster design workshop module

The workshop module Poster Design focuses on the typical design of scientific posters, with particular emphasis on layout, presentation of scientific data and text reduction.

Materials:

Example poster:

For a little inspiration, it is always worth looking at the posters of other scientists in the physics corridors.

K. Brassat, D. Kool, J. Lindner: Correlation between morphology and coordination of nanopores created by block copolymer lithography
K. Brassat, D. Kool, A. Taube, M. Schaper, J. Lindner: Morphology investigation of nanopores by block copolymer lithography on different material surfaces (EMRS, 2018)
K. Brassat, A. Taube, D. Kool, L. Tasche, K. Hoyer, M. Schaper, J. Lindner: Ti-6Al-4V alloy: 3D printing of lightweight implantsand nanopatterning by self-assembly (EMRS, 2018)
K. Brassat, D. Kool, J. Lindner: Joining self-assembly techniques: A route to hierarchical nanopores
A. Bauer, S. Lahme, D. Woitkowski, C. Vogelsang, P. Reinhold: The Paderborn study entry phase in physics - A multi-perspective development and research programme (DPG 2019)

Workshop module Scientific Writing

The workshop module Academic Writing focusses on the subject-specific design of academic texts (Bachelor's and Master's theses) with a particular focus on the creation of a common thread and argumentative structuring.

The development of this module is funded by the Stiftung Innovationen in der Hochschullehre (STIL) in the Freiraum 2022 sponsors programme and is being developed in cooperation with Dr. Michael Rüsing.

Videos of the virtual workshops:

Links to the papers used in the workshops: