Lunch and Learn: A Key Part of INTERCOAST Graduate Experience

One unique part of INTERCOAST is the Lunch and Learn experience. Lunch and Learn is a monthly informal meeting at which the graduate students and post-docs gather for eating lunch together and having an informative seminar-style meeting. All of the components of Lunch and Learn are designed to promote the purpose of INTERCOAST—to educate and train graduate students in interdisciplinary coastal research.
By offering an informal but rigorous setting to do this, Lunch and Learn builds the INTERCOAST cohort, prepares students for their research, and invites outside speakers and authors to contribute to our mission. The current INTERCOAST post-doc in Bremen, Seth Gustafson, plans and organizes the meetings. He considers the interests of the students, any upcoming INTERCOAST events, and training that the students need.
Lunch, of course, comes next, and it serves an important part of the Lunch and Learn experience. By eating together, conversations about academic literature, a speaker’s presentation, or each other’s Moods of the Day can continue as necessary.
This is an outline for a typical INTERCOAST Lunch and Learn:

Mood of The Day

Each meeting begins with the ‘Mood of the Day,’ where everyone shares for a minute or two their mood and the reasons why they feel that way. Some examples might be ‘I’m very happy because my advisor is thrilled with my methodology!’ or ‘I’m frustrated because my data set isn’t quite working,’ and even ‘I’m feeling a bit down because Werder Bremen is struggling this year!’
Mood of the Day not only helps build familiarity between us all, but it also allows us to help one another with some research advice and to encourage each other in the inevitable research projects.

Presentations

Next, two graduate students give 10 to 15 minute presentations of their own work, followed by 5 to 10 minutes of discussion and questions. Because of our familiarity with one another’s work, the audience can ask difficult or precise questions about their fellow students that might otherwise be overlooked.
Another goal of this part of the Lunch and Learn is to prepare students for upcoming conference presentations or workshops.

Invited Guests

Invited speakers will present their own research, visiting panelists will reflect on a predefined topic. Recently, for instance, four post-docs comprised a panel on the topic of “Life After the PhD.”

INTERCOAST Retreat

Also, Lunch and Learns will consist of reading and discussing regional environmental history pieces of the North Sea and the Bay of Plenty or reading and discussing articles to prepare for the INTERCOAST retreat.

Social Events, Upcoming Gatherings, and Announcements

We then briefly address any necessary planning details. At our most recent meeting, this included announcing dates for the upcoming INTERCOAST workshop in autumn 2015, the upcoming INTERCOAST retreat in July, and an excursion in the autumn.