Freshman Course
The Freshman Course is an intensive course (4 days camp) for newly-enrolled students of SOKENDAI. This course has two objectives: (1) To acquire basic knowledge and skills required for all researchers; and, (2) To understand the SOKENDAI's broad range of intellectual fields, and create a network beyond your research field. This course consists of three sections: Exploring Diversity in Academia (EDA) , Researchers and Society , and Communication Skills for Researchers (writing and presentation) .
Exploring Diversity in Academia (EDA)
This course consists of presentations by current students (FC Student Coordinators) and a panel discussion by professors, that helps you learn about a wide range of as well as common areas of research activities in SOKENDAI, envision your research career, and build a new network with other students and professors coming from various research fields and backgrounds.
Researchers and Society
In this section, students learn and discuss social responsibility of researchers through workshops and lectures. In particular, we cover important topics such as research integrity, historical changes in social roles and responsibilities of researchers, issues that could arise in communication between experts and non-experts. This section is consisted of three parts: Research Ethics, Social History of Research, and Science Communication .
Communication Skills for Researchers
Whether one is writing or speaking, as a researcher it is essential to clearly communicate one's research. Therefore, this section aims to improve scientific writing and oral presentation skills. Through a lecture and editing workshop, we will first focus on how to compose scientific reports with a clear logical structure. Then, a lecture on presentation will cover such topics as reaching a wider audience and effectively receiving feedback.