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Three laboratory rotations are required of
IPN students. The first occurs during the summer prior to the initiation of
classes (July - Aug). The second rotation must be initiated by September
15. The third must be initiated by January 15 and continues into May.
The purposes of the laboratory rotations
are (1) to become familiar with a significant issue in neuroscience and the
experimental strategies that may be utilized to approach this issue and (2) to
explore laboratories and mentors as potential choices for thesis work.
Before beginning each rotation you will need to fill out a pre-rotation form on
the web at:
http://neuroscience.georgetown.edu/preresrot.htm
Following each rotation, the student will give a short post-rotational talk that
summarizes the aim of the project and presents any data that were acquired
during the rotation. A template for this talk is available for
downloading at:
http://neuroscience.georgetown.edu/niStudents.html
In addition, the student will complete the post-rotation report
form on the IPN website
at:
http://neuroscience.georgetown.edu/resrot.htm
The rotation will
not be considered completed until this report is filed.
It should be noted that rotations are not expected to
generate complete projects and that the 'learning experience' of the rotation is
to be emphasized over data collection.
Expectations of the rotations. During
the first summer rotation, students are engaged full-time in the laboratory
research with the exception of their engagement in Neurofest. During the
rotations that occur during the school year, a compromise between the demands of
the course load and the research rotation must be achieved. This compromise
changes week to week since the demands of the courses change (e.g. mid-term
exams). Thus, it is difficult to state an absolute number of hours per week a
student should commit to a fall or spring rotation. A first priority must
be for the student to achieve at least passing (B) grades in all courses and a B
average overall. Failure to achieve this academic minimum jeopardizes the
graduate status of the student. On average, students should expect to
spend at least 15-20 hours per week in the laboratory but, as noted above, this is
subject to change depending on the current demands of the courses. Prior to
beginning work, students should discuss with their rotation mentors the schedule
that their current course load demands and arrange a tentative work schedule for
the laboratory rotation. The mentor should be sensitive to the changing demands
of the courses. The student should realize that graduate school is a
full-time occupation and plan to utilize time off from coursework as time to do
experiments (i.e. although everyone needs a vacation, some
fraction of the school holidays are to be used to make progress on your research
project).
Expectation of the post-rotational talk.
Following each of the rotations, sessions will be organized during Neurolunch or
Neurofest that allow students to present a short (10-15 minute) talk that
summarizes the goal(s) of the research rotation and presents any data acquired.
While these talks should be thoughtfully prepared, they are not meant to
be the equivalent of regular seminars at Neurolunch given by more advanced
students. There is no expectation that substantial new data will
be generated during the rotation. A rough guide for a 10-15 minute talk might
be to present 3-9 slides.
A template is
provided at:
http://www9.georgetown.edu/grad/neuroscience/RotationTalkTemplate.ppt. Slides, while convenient, are not absolutely
necessary for a post rotational talk. Most, if not all, of the talk can be
focused around the goals of the rotation, the significance and rationale for
these goals and the experimental approaches used to begin to achieve these
goals. If new data have been generated, the presentation of these data will be
most welcome (but not required!).
IPN Home
Neurolunch Schedule Rotation Talk Template
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