# Assignments

This course did not have homework assignments, but students participated in different activities during some of the class sessions. These activities are described below, and relevant materials are provided.

Assignment files.
SES # | ACTIVITIES
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1 | Check your C.V. against the checklist in the last slide of today's presentation (PDF)
2 | Interview Questions (PDF) Sample interview questions provided by Dr. Schoen. (Used with permission.) Preparing the Interview (PDF) A follow-up compiled by Dr. Schoen after the session. (Used with permission.)
4 | ### Part 1 Find someone in the class who shares your research specialty (e.g., you both specialize in imaging). In 5 minutes, explain your research to that individual. Your listener should ask you at least 3 questions. At the end of 5 minutes, answer the following questions: How do you approach presenting information to that person? What do you assume that they know? What topics do you discuss? How much information can you address in 5 minutes? Where were their points of misunderstanding or confusion? How did you overcome those? ### Part 2 Find someone in the class who DOES NOT share your research specialty (e.g., you specialize in imaging; he/she specializes in regenerative medicine). In 5 minutes, explain your research to that individual. Your listener should ask you at least 3 questions. At the end of 5 minutes, answer the following questions: How do you approach presenting information to that person? What do you assume that they know? What topics do you discuss? How much information can you address in 5 minutes? Where were their points of misunderstanding or confusion? How did you overcome those? ### Part 3 Discuss the differences in describing your work to these two different audiences. What was similar? What was different? How did you overcome misunderstandings in each instance? What kinds of things was each audience interested in knowing? What assumptions you could make about their knowledge levels? What kinds of misconceptions did they have about your research?
8 | The goal of this exercise is to get you thinking about the big picture for your research. Often we get lost in the technical details of research and forget the big picture, i.e., the 'so what' of our work. ### Try this Simple Exercise to Describe your Research "Pitch" your work to a business audience. Instead of describing your work in the standard background-purpose-methods-results format that is used in scientific writing and presentations, use the following format, i.e., complete the following sentence about your final research goals: "Today for the first time, we will be able to/ ............. With this information, we can (1).................... (2)..................... (3)........................." The purpose of this exercise is to get students thinking about the big picture for their research.