100DaysOfPlasmaPhysics

[MarkBruns]

PARTICIPATIVE peer-led study endeavor ... PARTICIPATION required ... "courses" are low-key, but peer-led ... participating in the study course includes syllabus development and refinement, eg like barcamp unconference agenda ... to emphasize, this is not run like class -- it's a peer-led study group where participation is expected, ie like eating at table for 5-7 at a restaurant ... although, it is also expected that participants are not yet masters, but are learning together.

The study group assignments and resources are collected in readily forkable, searchable repositories on GitHub, ie we don't reinvent a new workflow, we use GitHub issues, pull requests, discussions ... study groups are treated like extended 25-session agile hackatons, typically meeting at least twice per week for 12 weeks.

The syllabus can change -- the group's general outline of study is organized around the careful READING of papers/text books, with mathematical derivation and data analysis via Jupyter notebooks and peer discussion of difficulties encountered in assigned reading/derivation.

Project mgmt of each session is peer led but it is very important to SCOPE the sessions ... these tightly-scoped hackathon office hours are not class-like or instructor-led, people are expected to prepare and get stuck beforehand on their own ... then use the session to ask questions and map out the thinking to resolve difficulties.

Most of the reading/work will be done separately ... the purpose is mainly social ... for talking about the problems/epiphanies.

The purpose of office hours is for 5 [and at most 10] participants via either Twitter Spaces or Zoom or similar SMALL group web mtg tools to discuss their difficulties or epiphanies in doing the assignment ... if someone NEEDS to study in a different manner, we might be able to help or accommodate an "accessibility" request HOWEVER we standardize on Github with SMALL group Zoom interactions since this SMALL group virtual format probably works best for most people

These participative study groups are in NOT one-on-one counseling framework ... but neither are they a large group or some anonymous lost-in-the-crowd big room or evangelical tent meeting.

Basics of the basics first ... READ Plasma Physics on Wikipedia ... to have the start of a clue about terminology, nomenclature and fundamental math ... like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfv%C3%A9n_wave#Alfv%C3%A9n_velocity

Nobody is required to follow the syllabus but the point of the syllabus and assignmentscis to build a library of notes, notebooks, curated GitHub Collections, annotated bibliographies and connections to the makers/builders/developers in AWESOME repositories of curated material.

In general, we try to adapt the best ideas that are working for similar groups ... we sort of follow the OpenFlexure development community format -- except that we might use something like open source Discord rather subscription-based Discourse or Slack. The general meta-point of this effort is to dogfood our work using open source ... to build Open Ed, Open Access resources ... not just something Arxiv or Connected Papers, but other refinements or add-ons or uses of existing APIs via small group ReTool. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_educational_resources

We are not dogmatically or zealously open source in a purist sense ... the point of the dogfooded push is extensibility and keeping the cost of study affordable. For example, we will evaluate things like Perlego and/or textbook sellers [which deal in e-books that are valuable enough that for-profit businesses are able charge for] such as ... an example of such a text the current edition of Alexander Fridman's Plasma Physics and Engineering

Hackweeks, Hackathons, DevConfs, TwitterSpace Office Hours
https://about.gitlab.com/community/hackathon/

Jobs, internships, research assistantships, post-doc positions, professorships
https://www.pppl.gov/partner-us/apprenticeships