Seminar Requirements

The Master's Seminar (CHEM*7940) is a .50 grade credit requirement. Students must complete this requirement within the first two terms of their entry into the M.Sc. program. The objectives of the CHEM*7940 (Master's Seminar) requirement are to encourage MSc students to stimulate in-depth thinking about the basis of their thesis research and to encourage development of the public speaking skills so essential for scientists. It involves the preparation of a written summary of their proposed research, building on their CHEM *7840 research literature review, and the presentation and defence of their proposal in a public seminar, together with attendance at and participation in the critical evaluation of analogous seminars presented by their peers. While most often based on the theme of their MSc research project, subject to the approval of their supervisor, the proposal may be on any topic of the student's choice. It should outline the reasons for undertaking the project, concisely survey the relevant literature, present a detailed description of the methodology to be used and outline any preliminary results.

Course Requirements

Within the first weeks of a student's second term in the MSc program, they are required to arrange a suitable date for their seminar which accommodates other commitments of their supervisor, their advisory committee members and the seminar chair, all of who must attend. A signed scheduling form giving their seminar title must be returned to the Graduate Program Assistant. Details regarding these procedures will be distributed to students at the beginning of that term.

At least two weeks prior to the seminar presentation students should submit a rough draft of their proposed research (written summary and slides) to their supervisor for review.

Students are required to submit an electronic pdf version (emailed) of their written Summary of Proposed Research to their Examining Committee that consists of: the  Advisory Committee, the Seminar Coordinator and the Graduate Program Assistant by noon of the day one week prior to the date of the seminar and slides (including safety slide) of the presentation a minimum of two working days prior. Penalties of 2% for each day late will be imposed for late submission of the proposal. This proposal will be evaluated by members of the Examining Committee according to the six categories:

  1. Written Summary of Proposed Research, consisting of:
    1. Outline of Proposed Research (maximum 1 page) and
    2. Bibliography and citations (maximum 1 page). See further details below*
  2. Seminar preparation and organization
  3. Seminar presentation (audibility, pace, enthusiasm)
  4. Understanding of the material (depth, coherence, applications, literature)
  5. Ability to handle discussion
  6. Comprehensibility of the proposal to a non-expert

Numerical grades will be given by each examiner based on the six categories

  1. 90–100% = outstanding
  2. 80–89% = excellent
  3. 70–79% = good/acceptable
  4. <70% = significant deficiencies; resubmission required by this reader, whose final report grade will be the average of the initial and later marks.

On the scheduled date, the student will give a public seminar presentation of the proposal, approximately 30 minutes in length, and respond to questions from members of the general audience and the examiners.

If the grade on the written proposal is ≥70%, corrections should be made to account for comments by the examiners and should be approved by the supervisor. One copy of the revised, final version of the written summary and presentation slides, must be submitted to the Seminar Coordinator and the Graduate Program Assistant within one week of the date of the seminar.

If the grade on CHEM*7940 is <70%, but the overall grade is a pass (>65%), copies for each examiner of an appropriately revised version of the written summary and slides must be submitted to the Seminar Coordinator and the Graduate Program Assistant within one week of the date of the seminar along with the annotated original copy from that reader.

If the overall grade of the CHEM*7940 presentation is <65%, a student has one opportunity to repeat the requirement. In this case, a date for the repeated seminar must be scheduled within one month of the initial seminar, the rewritten Summary of Proposed Research must be submitted by noon of the day one week prior to the date of the seminar and the revised slides submitted a minimum of two days prior.

A student is expected to participate in the assessment of at least eight CHEM*7940 or CHEM*7950 seminars other than their own. The participation must be completed by the end of their 2nd semester and will include filling out a Student Seminar Assessment form for at least eight seminars other than their own. A maximum of 4 (MSc)/3 (PhD) alternate seminars may be attended. These may be comprised of Chemistry Departmental seminars for non collaborative programs MSc/PhD graduate students as well as GWC2,  or departmental seminars. The remaining must be chemistry masters or doctoral seminars in order to meet the seminar course requirements. The Alternate Seminar Attendance Student Evaluation form must be completed for these seminars.

The Seminar Assessment is based on five criteria:

  1. Preparation and organization
  2. Presentation: audibility, speech and grammar
  3. Apparent understanding of the material
  4. Ability to handle discussion
  5. Comprehensibility of the presentation to a non-expert

Evaluation, Grades and Penalties

The examining committee for each student will consist of their Advisory Committee and the Seminar Coordinator. The final mark will be an average of the grades given by members of this committee. If the proposal is judged by the committee to be unsatisfactory (< 70%), the student will have one opportunity to revise and re-present the proposal, and the final grade will be based on an average of independent assessments of the two submissions/presentations.

When preparing your CHEM*7940 proposal, you should consult the following websites regarding academic integrity and plagiarism:

Infringements will not be tolerated!

If your chemistry report if found to contain plagiarized material, it will receive a grade of zero (0).

If a student is late in submitting either the original or final corrected version of their proposal, a penalty will be assessed which consists of 2% less on the final grade for each day late.

Credit for CHEM*7940 will not be assigned until all requirements and any necessary penalties are completed.

Advice regarding the seminar presentation and defence

It is important to remember that the seminar is presented to a more general audience and often includes graduate students from all other areas of chemistry. The presentation should take this into account and minimize the use of acronyms and technical jargon. It is essential that the fundamental scientific context and motivation of the work be presented in an accessible manner. Do not forget that one of the main criteria in which the seminar presentation is being evaluated is the comprehensibility of the presentation to a non-expert.

Advice regarding the seminar evaluation

Note that you are not evaluating the speaker as a person or as a scientist or for their overall intelligence or knowledge; you are only evaluating the quality of this presentation of this proposal. If they do not convey to you the essential objectives and content of the work, it means they did not present it well and should be evaluated accordingly.

Course Organization and Administration

The CHEM*7940 will be coordinated by the Seminar Coordinator, Dr. Mario Monteiro and by the Graduate Program Assistant. Further information and advice on any aspects of these requirements may be obtained from either of them.

Summary of Proposed Research Instructions

Your written Summary of Proposed Research consists of two separate sections:

  1. Outline of proposed research and
  2. Bibliography and citations.

Each of these sections must be only one page.

Outline of Proposed Research (maximum one page)

Write a detailed description of your proposed research project. Be as specific as possible. Provide background information to position your proposed research within the context of current knowledge in the field. State the objectives and hypothesis, and outline the experimental or theoretical approach to be taken (citing literature pertinent to the proposal), and the methods and procedures to be used. State the significance of the proposed research to a field or fields in the health sciences, natural sciences and/or engineering, or social sciences and/or humanities, as appropriate.

If you have not yet decided on a specific project, you must still provide a detailed description of a proposed research project. You may change your research direction or activities during the course of your studies, subject to the approval of your supervisor. In addition, Students are expected to write their outline of proposed research independently. Ideas and text belonging to others must be properly referenced.Include all relevant information in the outline. Do not refer reviewers to URLs or other publications for supplemental information.

In the Outline of Proposed Research, provide the requested information according to the guidelines and format standards outlined in the Presentation standards below.

Bibliography and citations (maximum of one page)

Provide a bibliography that includes citations for all works referenced in the research proposal. These citations should be in a format used the by the primary discipline of the proposed research. You must ensure that all citations are clear and complete, to allow reviewers to easily locate the sources.

Presentation Standards

Prepare your Summary of Proposed Research in any word processing program, following the requirements below. All text, including references (where applicable), must conform to these standards.

  • Acronyms and abbreviations must be spelled out completely on initial appearance in text;
  • Pages must be 8 1/2 x 11" ( (216mm x 279mm);
  • Pages must be single-spaced, with no more than six lines of type per inch;
  • All text must be in 12pt. Times New Roman font;
  • Condensed fonts will be accepted;
  • Colour imagery is acceptable* but the text should be in black;
  • All margins must be set at a minimum of 3/4" (1.87 cm);
  • Do not introduce hyperlinks in your documents;

Be mindful that colour may not always be easily viewable by readers of your proposal and may contribute to prohibitively large file size for your proposal.

The Ph.D. Seminar (CHEM*7950) is a credit requirement. Students must complete this requirement within the first two terms of their entry into the Ph.D. program. It is about a 30 - 40 minute presentation, and is usually based on the thesis research topic. As with the M.Sc. seminar, the goal is not the presentation of new data, but an explanation of the thesis research area which should be geared to a general audience of chemists. At the conclusion of the open discussion period following your seminar presentation, you will hold your first annual Supervisory/Advisory Committee meeting to informally present and discuss the progress made in your research project. Please note it is a University policy that all Ph.D. students are required to hold a Supervisory/Advisory Committee meeting once a year.

Summary of Course Requirements

  • Submit Power Point Presentation Slides to Advisory Committee, Seminar Coordinator and Graduate Program Assistant 1 working day before your seminar
  • Prepare and present a formal seminar of approximately 30-40 minutes followed by a question period
  • Attend and participate at other course seminars
  • Evaluate 6 CHEM*7940/7950 seminars during your second semester
  • Schedule and complete the Doctoral Comprehensive/Qualifying Examination

Power Point Presentation

To ensure useful feedback, the student is required to provide an electronic copy of their Power Point (or presentation) slides at least 24 hours (1 business day) before the seminar to the students' Supervisor, Advisory Committee and the Seminar Coordinator. The electronic file should be put on a light background and saved in a PDF format with 2 slides per page.

Academic Integrity (Plagiarism)

When preparing your CHEM*7950 proposal, you should consult the following websites regarding academic integrity and plagiarism:

Infringements will not be tolerated!

 

Evaluation

An evaluation committee consisting of the Supervisor, the Advisory Committe and the Seminar Coordinator will grade the oral presentation. At Guelph, the Seminar Coordinator also chairs the Seminar. The evaluation committee will grade the seminar based on the following criteria:

  • preparation, content and organization
  • presentation, speech and grammar
  • the student's understanding of material
  • the student's ability to handle discussion

Students will be assigned a Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory grade based on the committee’s evaluation.

Booking the Doctoral Comprehensive/Qualifying Examination

Immediately following the CHEM*7950 seminar presentation, the students’ Ph.D. Advisory Committee will define the topics to be covered in the Ph.D. Oral Comprehensive/Qualifying Examination. The PhD Comprehensive/Qualifying Examination will be scheduled to occur within six (6) to twelve (12) weeks of the CHEM*7950 presentation, but must take place in the second term. Attendance of the student at this meeting to discuss exam topics is at the discretion of the Advisory Committee.

The students’ Advisory Committee will make recommendations for the three (3) Examining Committee members (normally constituted to include representation from both campuses of the Centre and one of whom may be a non-Center member). The Examining Committee will normally include some or all of the advisory committee, but will not include the students' supervisor.

The Advisory Committee is requested to provide their recommendation for the examining committee membership for the Ph.D. Comprehensive/Qualifying Examination, the defined topics to be covered in the oral examination and the possible agreed meeting date. A form is provided to the Supervisor of the student as part of the CHEM*7950 Seminar paperwork, to fill in the recommended committee members, topics and examination time. This form will be forwarded to the GWC2 Administrative Assistant for processing.

The three (3) examiners will provide three (3) questions each. The student will choose six (6) questions to answer (two from each topic). The student will be allowed to review the questions for 30 minutes prior to the start time of the examination. The total time booking for an exam will be approximately two (2) hours.

Course Requirement Checklist

  1. Complete the Advisory Committee Form and Graduate Degree Program Form with your Supervisor (in your first semester) and submit it online via gryphforms.
  2. Register in CHEM*7950 (Ph.D. Seminar) and UNIV*7500 (Research/Writing) for your second semester. UNIV*7000 (Doctoral Qualifying Exam) will be added to your transcript after the successful completion.
  3. Please email the GWC2 Administrative Assistant at gwc@uoguelph.ca to tentatively book the link room to present CHEM*7950 and to hold your first Advisory Committee meeting.
  4. Confirm the availability of your Supervisor, Advisory Committee and the Seminar Coordinator for the date and time that you have selected.
  5. Send an email to your Supervisor, Advisory Committee, Seminar Coordinator and Graduate Program Assistant confirming the title, date and time of your seminar and committee meeting.
  6. Prepare your oral and power point presentation(s). When preparing the power point presentation, please ensure that there are two slides per page and saved in a pdf format.
  7. 24 hours before the start of your seminar presentation, please email your PowerPoint slides to your Supervisor, Advisory Committee, the Seminar Coordinator and the Graduate Program Assistant.
  8. Present your CHEM*7950 seminar.
  9. Schedule your UNIV*7000 Doctoral Qualifying Exam to be held 6 weeks after your CHEM*7950 seminar.
  10. Confirm your Doctoral Qualifying Exam (UNIV*7000) with the GWC2 Administrative Assistant, your Advisory Committee Members (your Advisor is not permitted to attend this exam) and the GWC2 Director.
  11. Attend and Evaluate and submit six (6) the other CHEM*7940/7950 Seminars. If you are unable to attend you must notify your Seminar Coordinator ahead of time.

Course Organization and Administration

The CHEM*7950 will be coordinated by Dr. Mario Monteiro and by the Graduate Program Assistant Further information and advice on any aspects of these requirements may be obtained from either of them.