Honours Programme Journal Club

Publications of recent research in important scientific journals will be studied, presented and thoroughly discussed, moderated by professor Cees Dekker and Dimphna Meijer (assisted by their Postdoc or PhD student).

Period: HP years 1 and 2 (= NB BSc year 2 and 3). Students attend the JC series twice, in the 2nd semester of both HP years. The HP Journal Club course will be organized once a year in semester 2 in a series of minimum of 3 a 4 (depending of number of students in the group) sessions per year. The sessions consist of around 2.5 hours in which groups of 2 students present a scientific article. All HP students prepare well and actively take part in the discussion.

Hours: 112. The student spends 28 hours on the specific paper he/she will present, the largest part is thorough reading, background checks and preparation time with your team member, and also includes both the presentation and leading the group discussion in class. The remaining 28 hours are spend on reading all other articles, preparing questions, attending the sessions and actively participating during sessions. In total this means 56 hours per JC series per year.

Format:

• Two or three papers per session, to be assigned by the responsible teacher

• Everyone reads those two papers beforehand

• 2-3 students prepare a presentation on each paper (i.e. everyone gets to present once) where these students

(1) provide background for the paper (note: this involves some broader reading/orientation about the problem studied in that paper),

(2) summarize the content and the results, and

(3) critically evaluate the paper.

• During and after the presentation, the group actively discusses the paper:

  • Is it important?

  • What was surprising about it?

  • What was missing?

• The role of the teacher is to facilitate the discussion.

• When possible also a BN lab tour is organized