SEISMIC Getting Started Guide
Welcome! We’re glad you’re here.
Once you know at what level you want to be involved in SEISMIC, you can learn the expectations for that level, what support is available to you, and what activities you can participate in. Our expectation for any involvement in SEISMIC is that you are respectful and collaborative. Note that each level builds off of each other, so if you are at Level 4, you have access to and should already have joined all the options in the earlier levels.
Are you at a SEISMIC Institution?
Click here to check out the 10 SEISMIC Institutions.
No.
- You can still join our newsletter!
- Become an External Participant! Find more details here.
- Attend public events and activities.
- Are you an intro STEM instructor? Check out our Experiments Working Group Projects for interventions you can use for your course.
Yes!
Continue reading below to see how you can get involved!
Level 1
Curious to know what is happening with SEISMIC, but don’t want to be directly involved yet?
Level 2
Interested in the activities of SEISMIC and affiliated with one of our SEISMIC institutions?
Level 3
Want to join a working group and get the utmost hands on experience with SEISMIC?
Level 4
Desire to get as involved as possible?
Breaking News
Level 1: Breaking News
At this level, you are curious to know what is happening with SEISMIC, but do not wish to be directly involved. You can sign up to receive our monthly newsletters and follow us on Twitter to stay updated. Our website is a good resource for learning about our current projects.
Level 2: Aftershock
You are interested in the activities of SEISMIC and are also affiliated with one of our SEISMIC institutions. You should contact your Local PI so you are made aware of any SEISMIC events happening on your campus. You are able to attend SEISMIC speaker visits on your campus as part of the Speaker Exchange Program, could help coordinate the speaker visits, and can travel to other institutions as a speaker. If you are interested in traveling to other SEISMIC institutions to give talks, let your Local PI know so you will be added to the list of available speakers.
Aftershock
Earthquake
Level 3: Earthquake
Join this level if you want to influence the direction of the Working Groups. You can read about our current Working Groups on our website and fill out this form to indicate your interest in joining one or more of them. You will then be contacted by the SEISMIC Project Manager with next steps. As a Working Group member, you are expected to attend the majority of Working Group meetings set by your co-chairs. You are encouraged to attend the SEISMIC Summer Meetings, present the progress of your Working Group at conferences and through speaker visits, write grant proposals, and contribute to the vision and goals of the Working Group. Work with your co-chairs to decide your involvement in the Working Group. If you are interested in being a Working Group co-chair, contact the Collaboration Council. Contact details are listed in the Leadership section of this website.
Level 4: Epicenter
At this level, you want to be as involved as possible. All SEISMIC projects are housed within one of the Working Groups. You can read about our current projects on our website and fill out this form to join one or more project teams. You will then be contacted by the SEISMIC Project Manager with next steps. As a project team member, you share responsibility for the progress of the project. You are expected to attend the majority of project meetings set by your project leads and contribute to the efforts of the project. This can be through opening up your classroom to a study, running analysis code, planning the experimental design, writing up results, and many other activities. You are encouraged to write grant proposals as needed to fund the project. To volunteer as a project lead, contact the Working Group co-chairs affiliated with the project, listed in the Leadership section of this website.
Epicenter
Collaboration
Communication
- We use email for most communication. We have a collaboration-wide mailing list that is used exclusively to send out monthly newsletters. Each Working Group has an email address that can be used to communicate with all the participants in the Working Group. We also have an email address to contact the Collaboration Council, and individual emails for different collaboration leaders. See the Leadership section on the website for the full list.
- In addition, we have set up a Slack workspace for easy communication between collaborators. This is often most helpful for asking quick questions to an individual and for discussions within a project team. Slack’s advantage over email becomes apparent when handling multiple ongoing topics of conversation. You can also easily search messages in Slack and see when someone is active on Slack or not. To join our workspace, use this link.
- All virtual meetings scheduled by the SEISMIC Project Manager will be hosted through Zoom. It is highly recommended that participants download Zoom and set up an account to participate in these meetings. In Zoom you can share your audio, video, and/or screen. You can call in from your phone, computer, or room system. There is an option to record the meetings as well. For help with Zoom, visit the Zoom Support Page.
File Storage and Information Sharing
- “The Open Science Framework (OSF) is a tool that promotes open, centralized workflows by enabling capture of different aspects and products of the research lifecycle, including developing a research idea, designing a study, storing and analyzing collected data, and writing and publishing reports or papers. It is developed and maintained by the Center for Open Science (COS), a nonprofit organization founded in 2013 that conducts research into scientific practice, builds and supports scientific research communities, and develops research tools and infrastructure to enable managing and archiving research.”
- We use OSF to manage internal information. There is a central collaboration page called SEISMIC Project intended to share information with Working Group members and Collaboration Council members. You must request access to this project through our SEISMIC Project OSF page to view the full details and participate.
- There are four main pieces to any OSF page. At the top is the list of Contributors. These are all the people who have edit access to the component. Below the Contributors and to the right is the Components section. The structure of OSF allows for multiple sub-projects, called Components. On the next page is a figure detailing all the current components of our SEISMIC Project. You may not be able to view the Collaboration Council component in OSF if you are not on the Collaboration Council.
Additional Support
Support from SEISMIC Project Team
As a SEISMIC participant, you have access to the SEISMIC Project Team for organizing, visioning, event planning, and evaluation support. The Project Manager can assist you with scheduling project meetings, capturing meeting notes, sending out agendas, and other tasks to help your SEISMIC work move more smoothly. This person is your main contact for any SEISMIC questions or concerns you have. The Project Director is available for questions and discussions regarding the future of the collaboration and collaboration-wide opportunities. You can also raise these topics with your Local PI, who can bring them up at CoCo meetings. We have partnered with the University of Michigan Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT) to provide event support for SEISMIC events. If your institutional team volunteers to host a SEISMIC Summer Meeting, The CRLT team will provide some event support in addition to what your local event team can provide. We have also partnered with the University of Michigan Center for Education Design, Evaluation, and Research (CEDER) to evaluate the activities, structures, and outcomes of SEISMIC. You are welcome to contact the CEDER team with questions around education design and evaluation.