Activities PhD 2009 Cohort
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Scientific Writing Course, March 2010
On March 17th and 18th 2010 our “Scientific Writing Course” took place. Andrea Karsten came to the Biozentrum and gave us insight into:
- the structure of academic texts
- how to deal with working and writing problems
- structure of research grant proposals
- active and passive style
- interaction in academic texts
Especially the part about “interaction in academic texts” was very interesting. We dissected the introduction of a recent paper and learned a lot about the importance of single words, how you can boost or hedge arguments and most importantly how to direct the reader.
(Andreas Modlmeier)
Teambuilding course at the high rope climbing garden Oberschleißheim, 25.07.2009
On Saturday the 25th of July 2009 our teambuilding course at the high rope climbing garden Oberschleißheim took place.
Robert Lausch and a colleague were our coaches. The aim of our course was to get to know each other outside of the university.
First we got an introduction into the rules of climbing and some safety instructions. The first part of the course was given on the ground, where we as a team had to get a member of our group through a rope net that looked like a huge spider net without touching the rope. Then we got of the ground and up a climbing wall to test the safety equipment and to get further instructions into climbing. After that we went up to the platforms which were located 9 meters above the ground!! In order to get from one platform to the other one had to go through different tasks. Up there different show-jumping courses could be done, including balancing over a single wooden trunk to another platform, going over a rope, going over two parallel wooden trunks, getting to another platform by swinging through rope loops… All show-jumping courses were done in teams of two people. The teams were important so each partner could assure that their partner was always hooked in the right way by his two safety ropes. For some parts of the show-jumping course both partners were needed, for example going along two ropes spanned parallel between two platforms each partner using one rope for his feet, holding each other by their hands and therefore stabilizing each other on the way to the other platform. At the end each participant slid down back to the ground along a long rope getting a beautiful sight over the canal of the rowing regatta that was built when the Olympic games in 1972 took place in Munich.
It was a great experience and I think all of us got to know our personal limit, we had to overcome our own fears up to a certain extent. It was a great feeling being back on the ground, but it was even a greater feeling to know that you mastered the different tasks 9 meters above the ground. (Sabine Wollrab)
Time management boot camp, June 2009
On June 16th und 17th 2009 our group of PhD students took a course called „PhD Bootcamp - Coping with the challenges of a PhD study”. This course was an in-house Training offered by TRESS&TRESS.
Contents of the course were
- Discussion about the meaning and requirements of a PhD
- Time management and project management
- How to get effective supervision
- How to write a paper
Bärbel and Gunther Tress, the coordinators of the course, taught us some useful tricks that might help us to plan and organize our projects in the future. We learned a lot about how to deal with usual problems and conflicts and how to organize ourselves in order to finish our PhD study in time. Besides the newly learned techniques and the advices of the coordinators, it was also very helpful to discuss problems and personal experiences with the group! (Ilka Kureck)
EES Phd-program workshop „presentation skills“, 27.05.2009
The course on presentation skills took place on Wednesday, 27th of May 2009, from 10 a.m to 6 p.m. It was organized by Sprachraum, an initiative of the LMU Munich for the advancement of communication skills. Sprachraum is located in Fraunlobstr. 7a, where the course also took place.
In advance of the course each participant was asked to prepare a short 3-minute talk about any topic.
Our teacher for the workshop was Katharina Wendl. The following topics were dealt with:
- Giving and receiving feedback
- The speaker’s expression (nonverbal, verbal and paraverbal expression)
- Structure of a speech
- Using visual aides
- Dealing with questions
Katharina Wendl gave small teaching units about each of the above mentioned topics. Between these teaching units, every participant was encouraged to give a short 3 minute talk, which was taped on video. After each round of 4 presentations, we watched the talks again on tape and made notes about the presentation: regarding expression, structure, visual aids and the way the presenter dealt with questions by the audience. Each time three of us gave direct feedback to the speaker. Everyone’s notes were then handed out to the speaker and Katharina Wendl also gave her „professional“ feedback to each presenter, pointing out what was good and what could still be improved. Thus, it was made sure that each participant received individually adjusted feedback and everyone was given tailor-made advice on how to improve his/her performance.
All in all, I think this workshop was really helpful. Besides the theory part, it is a really helpful experience to watch yourself giving a talk and to get individually adapted advice on how to improve your performance. So I would recommend this workshop to other students who might be interested in taking a course on presentation skills. (Lena Müller)
