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Mentoring can change the trajectory of a mentee's life. With so many new members joining CBB and undergraduates joining us for the summer, this seminar being hosted by Natasha Holmes through LEPP @ Cornell may be of special interest.
Host: Natasha Holmes
Title: A course-based near-peer mentoring program in physics
Date/Time: Thursday, March 24, 2022 at 1:00pm (EST)
Location: 401 Physical Sciences Building & Zoom (link in department email)
Abstract: When the COVID-19 pandemic started, the MIT Physics Department implemented a one-on-one mentorship program for students in a large first-year undergraduate electromagnetism class required of all students. Eighty-eight students in the class met weekly one-on-one with mentors (mostly more advanced undergraduates who were paid for their efforts, but also including some staff and faculty) for both academic and psychosocial support. The academic performance of mentored students generally improved significantly over the rest of the semester and also in comparison with students who did not choose mentoring. Post-semester interviews of all mentors identified program elements that fostered belonging, STEM identity, and self-efficacy. Strong satisfaction led to a scaling up of the program to incorporate all MIT first- and second-year undergraduate physics classes and to add physics graduate students and postdocs as mentors. Inspired by the Learning Assistants model, this program builds a community of practice that contributes to the academic success of mentees, develops the skills of mentors, and fosters belonging in the physics department. This talk will summarize key elements of the program including its assessment.
The Center for Bright Beams requires that all students complete an annual report. Submission requirements and template for the report are both included in the student list email from January.
Topic: Using elegant to Optimize Beam Lines
Description: Dr. Chris Hall will demonstrate use of elegant's built-in tools for beamline optimization tasks. Setup of optimization parameters and construction of terms for the objective function will be shown and discussed.
CBB Director Ritchie Patterson will give a Physics Colloquium at U.Chicago this Thursday at 3:30pm CDT (4:30 pm EST), entitled “Better beams for science and society”. CBB members are welcome to attend via Zoom. See the department email for Zoom information.