This guide describes how this virtual school is organised, how you can make the most of attending it remotely, and what we expect from you as a selected participant.
Timetable
The timetable (week view) is available at https://indico.cern.ch/event/1017080/timetable. The time used is Geneva local time (CEST) - for example, morning sessions start at 9:00 CEST, which is 7:00 UTC. We will be starting each class on time, and we expect you to be already connected at the class starting time. Ideally, please connect a few minutes in advance.
Lectures
Lectures are the main component of the school. They are marked in yellow in the timetable (week view).
After each lecture, we will invite you to take a short quiz (2-3 questions) that will help you confirm what you have learned during that lecture.
Hands-on exercises
Rolling up your sleeves and trying things yourself is a great way to learn and practice what you have heard during the lectures. For that purpose, most classes include hands-on exercises.
The instructions and materials for these hands-on exercises will be presented at the exercise introduction session. Afterwards, you will have time to work on the exercises. At that moment, you will be invited to connect to a dedicated smaller Zoom room, where a lecturer or a mentor will be present and available to assist you if needed. Of course, you can continue working on the exercises even outside the allocated slots (or even after the school ends). Finally, during the exercise debriefing session, the lecturer will go through the exercises, quickly explain the results and lessons to draw from them, and answer any outstanding questions (also related to the lectures). All exercise slots are marked in magenta in the weekly timetable.
Group assignments
Each of the three programme tracks includes a group assignment (marked in green in the weekly timetable). School participants will be split into groups of 5-7 persons, and will discuss and work together on a provided topic. All participants are required to actively contribute to these assignments, with their cameras enabled. At the end, each group will briefly present their conclusions to the rest of the school participants.
Self-presentation session (recommended)
Getting to know fellow participants, and exchanging with them, is a major added value of our schools. To facilitate this, we will have a self-presentation session on the first day of the school. Each participant, lecturer and organiser will have a possibility to present him-/herself during one minute, using a single slide. You may want to use this opportunity to mention where you come from, your current work, your professional interests - but also your hobbies, things you've done and you're proud of (or not 🙂) etc. The slides will be visible only to other participants of the school, but not public. See some examples here.
Student lightning talks (optional)
The student lightning talks session on Wednesday afternoon will include a few short presentations (5-7 minutes max.) presented by school participants. It is an occasion for you to present briefly some scientific or technical topic related to the school programme. This could be an interesting technology, tool or service that you are using; overview of the experiment or project you're working on etc. (However, please avoid presenting an in-depth topic that requires extensive prior knowledge to understand). For some inspirations, see examples from the previous years.
If you want to propose a lightning talk, then please submit your proposal here by Monday June 14th.
Exam
The school concludes with a a final examination. The passing threshold is 50% of correct answers. This exam is an opportunity for you to confirm what you've learned during the school.
Diploma and Certificate of Attendance
Participants who pass the exam, and who have participated in the school as expected, will be granted an official CSC Diploma. Those who have actively participated but have not passed the exam will be provided with a Certificate of Attendance.
Group photo
On Tuesday at 2pm we will be taking a "group photo" of the school - a picture of the participants connected to the Zoom room. This group photo, containing a lot of small but recognizable pictures of individual participants, will afterwards be published on the school website (and possibly, in other CERN publications).
- If you want to be part of the group photo, please enable your camera when we will be taking the photo (technically, screenshots of the Zoom gallery view).
- If you prefer not to be included in this group photo, please just keep your camera off.
In any case, your name will not appear in the final edited group photo.
