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JANET CONRAD: So
in 8.13, the way

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that we assess student
learning, one of the ways

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that we assess student learning
is for them to give talks that

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are the kind of talk that you
would give at the American

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Physical Society meeting.

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It's a little bit different.

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We give them three
extra minutes than what

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you would have in the American
Physical Society meeting.

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Nevertheless, it's very hard
to squeeze everything you've

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learned into a 15 minute talk.

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And what we're looking
for in the talks,

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we're looking for
several things.

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We're looking for how well
they understand the content.

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And how will they communicate
the content, both visually

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and also verbally.

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And so those are
the three things

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that we're really
trying to hit on as we

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grade them related to the talk.

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So the students will end
up giving four talks.

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The first talk is on the
early set of experiments

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that they have.

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So they do three short
experiments, just

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to learn a lot about
how the equipment works,

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how statistics works,
things along those lines.

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And they choose one of
those to give a talk.

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And that talk doesn't count.

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So it's an opportunity
to find out

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what it is like to give
a talk and to find out

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how I'm going to be responding,
the kind of questions

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that I'm going to
ask at the end,

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and how we're going to go
back through everything

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and take it all apart and see
if we can put it back together.

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Then they have three long
labs that they have done.

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And one of those
three long labs will

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be the subject of
their final talk

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that they give at
our mini conference.

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And so, in the three talks that
they give, what we're doing

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is we are not just checking
all of the information

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that they've learned to make
sure that they understand all

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of the physics and so forth.

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We're also helping them
rethink those talks

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so that they can then
give an even better talk

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at the mini conference.

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And so I'm doing that.

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I always do this with my TA.

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So there's two of
us in the room.

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And the lab partners are
together in the room.

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One person gives
the 15 minute talk.

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And then as we go back
through, the other lab partner

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writes down all of the
comments that we have.

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So that the other lab partner
can give the first one,

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the one that was giving the
talk, all of our information.

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So that they can
make the changes.

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And so this seems
to work really well.

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And they will also work
very closely with Atissa,

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our communications person.

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And she also goes through
the talks with them.

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We videotape them.

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So she can see the
videotape and then

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she can go through the
videotape with the students.

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And that really helps to
make the mini conference

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talk really good also.