Week 1.1: Getting Underway#
Week 1 is the time for everyone to get to know who is involved in the minor—fellow students, supervisors, coaches and the teaching team. You will learn about the requirements to complete the minor successfully. You will spend some time getting to know your groups and start learning the foundational skills needed during the minor.
This week’s activities also include picking a team name and starting to develop research ideas. Unscheduled time should be spent reading articles on the topics, and discussing ideas with fellow students, and anyone else you want.
The schedule for this week includes :
Schedule#
Monday:
Overview of the structure of the minor, our goals, expectations (see Introduction) and the assessment process
Workshop: Technical Tools – explanation and exploration of all the tools we will be using: textbook, Brightspace, Teams
Get to know students and supervisors
Subtopic presentations by supervisors and coaches
Review article assignment — explanation of the reading assignment to prepare for the Jigsaw activity on Thursday and Friday
Tuesday:
Workshop: Group Roles and Group Dynamics
(teaching team makes student groups)
Wednesday:
Student groups announced
Team Building : playing (medical and biology-themed) collaborative and competitive board games
Group free time to create a team name, explore the subtopics, and read subtopic articles
Thursday:
Jigsaw Puzzle part I (students will discuss in groups the different parts of the review given on Monday)
keep on reading and understanding the background of subtopics
Submit team name
Friday:
Jigsaw puzzle part II (students will discuss the different parts of the review with the rest of the class. See Jigsaw puzzle part I)
Topic selection
Submit the first writing assignments
Friday symposium: Reflect on the week
Introduction#
The minor Director will welcome you during this Monday morning session. He will introduce you to the minor, the transdisciplinary side of it, what we want to achieve, structure and schedule, contact details, etc.
In a collaborative project, it’s important to have a strong understanding of shared expectations. We will start the discussion by clarifying the expectations of the teaching team and have time to discuss your expectations. Once the groups are assigned, you will further develop shared expectations within your own group.
Key Concepts#
If you think about this as preparing for a sailing voyage, this is about familiarizing yourself with your boat, laying out the map of your journey and getting excited about what you could learn along the way.
Information They Should Know#
What systems are being used
Who’s involved
Where to go to get help
Deadlines and assignments
Expectations
Workshop: Technical Tools#
In this short workshop, we will go over all the systems we will be using during the minor: the textbook, Brightspace, teams, etc.
Key concepts#
Understanding the tools that will be used. Like a sailor preparing for a voyage, it’s essential to have your tools ready and know how to use them and where things are.
Presentations of Subtopics#
The destination of this minor is doing a research project. Within a large umbrella topic, you will be offered subtopics as your starting point. These are broad questions where groups will need to work on understanding the research area to develop a specific actionable research question. Supervisors, experts, and stakeholders will present the subtopics offered to student groups in the form of short presentations.
Presentations will last 7 to 8 minutes for each subtopic and will answer very broadly the following questions: why they think this subtopic is interesting; what is the state of the art in the field; and what are some of the burning questions in the area. The presentations will be followed by a few minutes to ask questions about the topic.
For each subtopic, we will provide a half-page summary and 2-3 articles as introductory reading to help you get started learning about the topic. These will be available in Brightspace.
When you start reading the subtopics, we advise you not to rush into picking one. Try to think of questions you would find interesting in all subtopics. Once groups have been formed by the teaching team, you can start narrowing down which topic your group wants to focus on. You will work in groups of 4-6 students and will need to develop an idea together. The goal is to integrate and build on ideas from all group members, not to vote between two different ideas. You can merge subtopics or select elements from multiple subtopics. The journey of the groups will be to develop understanding of their subtopic, investigate different aspects of it, and create a research question and then proposal to investigate it. Each team is expected to become the expert on their topic.
Workshop: Scholarly Communication and Critical Reading#
The aim of the workshop Scholarly Communication – Critical Reading is threefold: (1) introduce the basics of good literature search methodologies, (2) introduce the characteristics of the academic communication environment, and (3) provide guidelines for critically reading scientific texts.
The first part of the workshop is the fundamentals of searching for scientific literature for articles of interest and methods for tracking what you’ve found and will use in your future research. Then we’ll begin the discussion of how to read what you’ve found.
Related to the second aim, the typical features of rhetorical communication situations in an academic environment will be addressed. Various elements in a communicative environment, such as audience, context, and conventions, can influence writers’ textual and stylistic choices. We will discuss various genres of scholarly communication that students will regularly come across, such as the scientific journal paper.
The third part of the workshop introduces critical reading as one of the first steps in both the research and writing process. Carrying out a critical literature review is an essential first step in the research process, of which scientific texts such as a research proposal or journal paper are an important part. This part of the workshop focuses on guidelines for critical reading of literature, to help students determine key information in relevant sources. It introduces the Scientific Argumentation Model, a helpful tool for systematically mapping scientific sources. Students will analyse and discuss critical examples of relevant papers by recognizing helpful structural and stylistic elements to navigate such sources.
Key concepts#
What is scholarly communication?
Genres in scholarly communication
How to read and interpret scientific sources
Writing process (and the role of critical reading in the writing process)
Learning goals#
Use good search methodologies including tracking what you find
Understand the elements of the scholarly communication situation
Know about various genres in scholarly communication and their characteristics
Understand the various stages of the writing process
Understand essential elements and features of scientific texts for critical evaluation
Analyse examples of scientific papers with the Scientific Argumentation Model
Reflect on the value of information provided in scientific texts
Workshop: Group roles and group dynamics#
Teamwork can make or break a project. Every team member has their own goals, interests, backgrounds, working methods, knowledge, and skills. The collaboration of such diverse groups will cause friction and conflicts. The expertise is to keep them constructive rather than allowing them to become destructive, or if they do be able to transform them back to constructive. To help your team succeed, during this workshop we will show you some essential tools for examining perspectives and conflicts. To support your collaboration, we will focus on various aspects of teamwork and collaboration throughout the whole minor.
This afternoon workshop will focus on models used for understanding group roles, perspectives and effective communication. The world is filled with different models that people use to understand these, using one or more can be helpful in structuring the conversation around this difficult topic.
Workshop: Team building#
In the morning, the teams will be announced, and we will have time to get to know each other by playing competitive and collaborative board games related to biomedical research. During the first part of the workshop, we will dive further into the topic of teamwork and collaboration and discuss your experiences with the various games. We will discuss the essentials of effective collaboration and the role of competition in teamwork.
Key concepts#
Collaboration, competition, team work
Learning goals#
Collaboration is one of the four main threads of this minor, and peer feedback is key to that.
Collaborate effectively with other group members, other groups, supervisors, coaches and the case owners/experts of the field.
Evaluate different roles of members in group projects.
Workshop Jigsaw puzzle part I#
In jigsaw activities, you engage with content in different ways, explaining more deeply different parts of the content. In this workshop, you will be grouped according to the piece of the review, given on Monday, that you have had to read. For instance, the four students who had to read the Introduction will come together and discuss the Introduction, you have become Experts in your part. What have you learned from it? What is important? What has piqued your curiosity? Have you found additional interesting information? The other groups do the same for their parts. During the session, you will make 3-4 slides with the information of your part. These will then be presented to the other students during the Workshop Jigsaw puzzle part II, on Friday. Each student will need to be prepared to present their part in day 2 of this workshop.
Key concepts#
Collaborative learning, team work.
Learning goals#
Students will acquire a deep understanding of their assigned part and be able to explain it clearly to their peers.
Students will gain experience in teaching complex material to their peers, developing skills in explaining, summarizing, and clarifying information.
Workshop: Reflective Science#
During this workshop, students will dive deeper into what each individual brings to the team. We’ll discuss what prior knowledge and skills we have that could be relevant to the team project. Further, we will reflect on how we prefer to work and communicate with each other. We will use a culture map to identify cultural and personal differences in communication and teamwork, aiming to understand how the individual team members can collaborate effectively.
Working effectively in a team requires good understanding of what knowledge and skills are required for the project to be undertaken, but also good understanding of cultural (including: field of expertise, social-economic background, or country of origin) and personal preferences of oneself and of all the team members. In this workshop, you will identify what skills and knowledge might be needed to start the project and if the required skills and knowledge are already present in the team. In addition, you’ll work on identifying and discussing personal and cultural preferences regarding teamwork and communication. We’ll discuss how cultural habits can interact with other cultures to develop deeper understanding of how culture influences collaboration. (Further information can be found in The Culture Map, Erin Meyer, ISBN: 9781610392761).
During this workshop, you will discuss what expertise each team members bring to the group, and formulate your learning goals.
Key concepts#
Self-awareness. Intercultural communication and work.
Workshop Jigsaw puzzle part II#
In this second part of this workshop, you, as Expert of one part will be separated and mingled with Experts of the other parts. Each student within these newly formed groups will present their different parts to the rest of the group. In this way, everybody will be teaching different content to the rest of your classmates. You will then be making connections between the parts they have studied with the other parts of the content.
Jigsaw activities make the you more engaged with the content you are learning, sharing it with others and learning from others at the same time. This maximises interactions and collaborations in learning something, together.
Key concepts#
Collaborative learning, team work, making connections between parts, presenting.
Learning goals#
Able to develop deep understanding a scientific text and be able to explain it clearly to their peers.
Connect their expertise to larger topics to contribute to the overall understanding of the subject.
Develop skills in active listening and clear communication on a scientific topic.
Analyze how different subtopics interrelate and integrate them into a coherent understanding of the larger topic.
Develop skills in explaining, summarizing, and clarifying information to explain complex material to non-expert peers.
Workshop: Topic selection#
There will be structured group activity with a facilitator to discuss the topics. For this activity, you need to pick your favourite subtopics.
The group members identify three subtopics which interest them, and then you will explore two or three out of these via creative brainstorming sessions, using methods such as Draw the problem, Cover story or Anti-problem. This session will help make deciding on a topic easier.
Group activities (not scheduled)#
Read the suggested articles on the topics you’re interested in.
Find and read other sources on the topic
Set up Mendeley for your group for tracking who’s reading what
Decide on a team name and turn it in.
Discussion Questions#
Who am I? Going through the group roles, what do you think about the results you got? What are the strengths and weaknesses of any of these frameworks?
How does critical reading of sources differ from how you read other materials such as novels, magazines or weblogs?
How are you keeping track of what you’ve read so you can refer to it? What are the strengths and weaknesses of that method?
Why are you interested in these topics? Which aspect of the research topic is interesting / challenging? What do you know about these topics? What questions do you have about the topics?
How is it going so far? What do you hope for next week?
What is the role of conflict in a collaboration?
What does a collaborative team need emotionally to be successful?
Weekly Submitted Assignments#
Details in Brightspace:
Group#
Decide on a team name and turn it in
Individual#
Reflection on grouproles, the expertise you bring in the team, and writing Individual learning goals for the minor. (½ page minimum)
References#
Information Literacy I - TU Delft OCW
Reference management (tudelft.nl)
The Culture Map, Erin Meyer, ISBN: 9781610392761