MBL MICRO-ECO DISCUSSION GROUP

Meets Thursdays, 2:30-3:30 PM, Lillie 103, unless otherwise stated



MBL Micro-Eco Discussion Group, Spring 2017

On February 2. Brainstorm to organize ourselves. Find common ground on:

  • what ideas might groups of us coalesce around for writing e.g. review paper(s) or proposal(s)? (can we maximize our productivity by making review-paper-writing be fodder for proposal(s), or vice versa?)

  • what unusual datasets might be out there already that we could mine in novel ways? (new datasets, old datasets, including orphan datasets too - ones that were gathered, but just never used for whatever reason. Is there a way we can build on what we already have in hand? )

Our goal will be to leave the Feb 2. meeting with small group "to do" lists... e.g. looking up what really does or doesn't exist in datasets we have, examining what else might be out there freely available that could be useful for whatever topic we are thinking about, looking into whether for a particular focal topic there has been a recent review paper we missed, and if not, what fodder exists for one, etc.


On Feb. 9. - SNOW!! Postpone until Feb. 16!!

 

Feb. 16.Meet and share what we've learned about datasets/opportunities. We'll probably realize some ideas/projects just aren't quite ready to fly, but some may be very promising. Obviously not everyone will be interested in everything that comes up, but can we work with the common ground we have developed and find a couple or three solid topics/ideas/syntheses/analyses that we can pursue?


Feb. 23 and on. Use the MicroEco hour each week to work together and to share progress with one another.  Coalesce around 2 or 3 ideas; groups working on those ideas sign up in rotation throughout spring to present to one another what is being done. (The deadline of groups having to present every 3 or so weeks could be useful!) Also, there have been inquiries from new potential members about whether they could talk with the group about their research. 

How about we rotate presentations, with working groups reporting every 2 - 3 weeks, interspersed with a presentation or paper discussion once in a while.

 

April 20 - Easter break! (no MicroEco)