PhB Mentors

Published in the Research School of Physics Event Horizon
Vol44 Issue4 28 January–1 February 2019

Update on the 2019 PhB program:

Hello all and welcome to another big year for our wonderful PhB students and supervisors. Here are some points to note for 2019:

 -All PhB Physics projects (ASCs) are marked by a panel that consists of folks that have supervised a Physics PhB student that semester.  Thus no 'co-markers' required and supervisors do not mark their own student's report.

 -As part of the responsibilities of taking on a PhB student project you will be required to participate in that session's marking panel. The time commitment is marking between 1-4 projects and attending a 1 hr meeting to discuss your notes on the report and agree on a mark.

-I am trying to encourage the students to really stick to their deadlines this year. So please do not just grant a student a 2 week extension without a really strong reason. Extension make marking really tricky and delays everything, it also pushes the report right into exam time - not a good thing for the students. Discuss the importance of time management and deadlines with the students - they need guidance from you as the supervisor in terms of expectations and how to set a series of milestones for the project timeline. Pls pls give them feedback on their report. This can bump up their mark by quite a few percent and is really encouraged as a feedback/learning process!

 -You will also need to provide a short paragraph (as part of the assessment form) to be passed on to the student as formal written feedback. Be specific and to the point. General stuff (ie well done, good project, works well etc) wont help them improve. What did they do well? What could they improve?

-There has been a change in the average mark requirements for students to stay in the PhB program. Students now only need maintain a 75% average and this does not apply in 1st year. This change has been implemented in response to the fact that many students found the HD requirement very stressful and there was evidence that students were avoiding the harder subjects to maintain their average. Often students who stepped off the program found their marks improved! We hope this will take some of the stress away from this program whist maintaining the high standards. There has been no change in the entrance requirements for the PhB.

-One again I will need between 10-15 new academic mentors. Pls contact me if you would be happy to take on a new PhB student. All that is required is 1-2 meetings per semester to have a general chat. Some students take projects with their mentors, some do not. Some students request guidance on subject selection - some students do not. Don't worry if you don't know all the details - you can always re-direct them to Joe Hope or myself for specific questions.

-Jodie Bradby

PhB Physics coordinator