Tables covered with cloth white as snow; sliced strawberries and cantaloupes piled up into small hills; young women in formal suits weaving through people of different ages. Yes, you get it: the 36th SENIOR SYMPOSIUM was lighting up every corner of the once deserted Kendade with passion and intelligence on Friday, April 16, 2010. People moved from room to room to attend fifteen minute presentations in various disciplines given by Mount Holyoke College students. One of the staff attending the event remarked: “It is just like Christmas!”
As Joanne Creighton put it, this huge event is absolutely “a showcase of outstanding academic work from members of the graduating class”. Families, friends and members of the Five College communities were all invited to share with their beloved ones this particular moment after at least one year of dedicated research on a specific topic. All lab members, including the research mentor, were also present to support their presenting senior. Their prescense brought a strong sense of belonging and connection to the individual presenters, attaching a different meaning to Senior Symposium beyond academia. Most of the research projects are closely related to topics that are currently under active investigations world-wide.
During presentations, incidents such as malfunctioned computers occured. Never the less presenters showed great maturity in handling these accidents by starting over calmly, maintaining a reasonable pace and concurrently keeping track of time. The research mentors could be seen with broad smiles, apparently being proud of the students they have guided.
The specific passion and dedication on one particular field is highly appreciated. On the other hand, to develop comprehensive and diverse interests is also one of the most important elements in college life. As one of the oldest liberal arts colleges, Mount Holyoke College takes pride in producing brilliant women, knowledgeable in both science and the arts. However, there seems to be a barrier that discourages students from venturing out of their comfort zone: the fear of science. How could we bridge the gaps between non-science and science?
First of all, the presenters might consider making the language more accessible. Since the Senior Symposium is intended for all fellow students and the general public, the presentations should involve fewer parlances that sound intimidating and include comprehensible comparisons. For example, when explaining the phenomenon of DNA scrunching in transcription initiation, Doris Tabassum’10 used a simple food analogy, “It’s like having a lot of spaghetti in your mouth. You can’t swallow or spit out [it out]” It is hard to abridge and ‘laypersonize’ the work that one has done so passionately. “You want to cover all the work you have done in less than fifteen minutes. Besides, you really want people to understand what you are talking about, but it is hard to avoid the technical terms in order to show the depth of your research,” said Professor Wei Chen, Chair of Chemistry Department, “I suggest that the student could focus on one key point in her project and explain it in easy terms. Highly specific information can be mentioned in several points depending on the time left. In this sense, every attendee can leave the talk, understanding at least something about the subject.”
Moreover, instead of being scared of the “novel taste” of the topic, students competent in other fields should consider the Senior Symposium as a “restaurant offering different delicacies rather than daily meals. They should try out different dishes which they haven’t had a chance to taste before on the menu. Their “lack of background” in the subject might actually benefit the professionals in the field. People in the same field often share the same opinions or “jargons” and thus think in the same way. Other perspectives from various disciplines are unique and necessary in order to bring new thoughts. In the years to come, we look forward to attending a talk where the audience consists of everyone from the Politics Department to the Dance Department to the Physics Department.
Related posts:
- Senior Symposium Preview
- Seniors Present Independent Research at Symposium
- Science and religion unite: Sages and Scientists Symposium
- Jayathilake’s journey into the sciences and beyond
- Famed animal sciences professor speaks to full house as part of lecture series
