REU 2009 Web Stuff

Contents

1. Daily Research Log (virtual lab notes)
   
2. Your REU Web Page
3. Final Research Presentation

1. Daily Research Log (Virtual Lab Notes)

Purpose

• It documents your daily research results in a chronological manner.
• It facilitates presentations to your research mentor and discussion group.
• It facilitiates preparation for your final presentation and journal publication.

Approach

Sample daily research Log

Specific instructions for creating your research log

• Login to filament  using an X terminal emulator (X11 or XWin32)
• Change directories your own web directory  (cd /home/www/reu/2009/your_login_name)
• At the prompt enter \mozilla, with no further arguments, simply a carriage return.
• When the Mozilla browser (Ice Ape) window opens, it displays (by default) no file.  
• To create your daily log file, open the File menu, click  New, select Composer Page, and save as daily_log.html
• You are now running the Mozilla editor, called Composer.
• Just click in the window and start typing to create the text you want.
• Use the various icons/tools on the menu to format text, create tables, insert images, etc.
  
• An example of how to insert an image or a movie is here.
  
• The icons/tools are pretty much the same as other word processing or presentation programs.  Just experiment to teach yourself how they work.
• When you've finished editing the page, click the Save  icon  or choose Save on the File menu.
• To see what you've created, using the Ice Ape web browser, simply click Browse
• Note that you've got both an editor window (Composer) and a browser window (Ice Ape) open.
• When you are done, choose Close or Quit on the File menu.

  Use your usual browser  on your own computer to make sure your log looks looks the way you want it.  One important reason for using mozilla on filament is that it creates "platform-independent" HTML code, which means that the log will be readable from any browser (e.g, Internet Explorer or Safari or Firefox) or whatever on many platforms (Windows PC, Apple).

• Continue to use the WYSIWYG editor "Composer"
• Login to filament  using an X terminal emulator (X11 or XWin32)
• Change directories your own web directory  (cd /home/www/reu/2009/your_login_name)
• At the prompt enter \mozilla daily_log.html, followed a carriage return.
• When the Ice Ape window opens, it displays your daily log file.  
• Open the File menu, select Edit Page.
• Just click in the window where you want to create new text, tables, insert images, etc.
  
• When you've finished editing the page, click the Save  icon  or choose Save on the File menu.
• To see what you've created, using the Ice Ape web browser, simply click Browse

Teach yourself HTML

Reference material

• Books: [on reference shelf (west wall) of EPS 256]
• HTML Goodies, Second Edition (Burns)
  
• Beyond HTML Goodies (Burns)
  
• Web: http://www.htmlgoodies.com

2. Your REU Web Page

Purpose

• Link to your daily research log file
• Link to your final presentation
• Put a human face on your REU participation
  
• Link to your favorite sites

Approach

Sample REU web pages

3. Final Research Presentation

Purpose

• Develop and demonstrate your understanding of the overall motivation for your project.
• Explain your research procedures and results to your fellow students and your mentors, both here and back home.
• Develop and demonstrate your presentation and html skills for your resume and future applications.
  

Approach

• Create a sub-directory "presentation" in your web directory /home/www/reu/2009/your_login_name.
• Create two subdirectories "movies" and "images" in your presentation directory.
• Copy into those directories the contents of /home/www/reu/2009/presentation/ and its subdirectories for movies and images. 
• Look at the contents of your "presentation" directory; you will see that the sample presentation that it contains consists of just three slides, with links at the bottom of each slide that allow you to go from one slide to the next.
  
• Use your favorite browser to make sure that the file index.html in your "presentation" directory works exactly the same as the file /home/www/reu/2009/presentation/, the links to go from slide to slide work OK.
• Now use mozilla on filament, following the same procedures that you used for your research log (instructions) to edit the files slide_*.html, to make up your talk.  All you need to do is insert your content into a slide file, make as many copies of one of the slide files as you need for your presentation (typically 10-12 for a 20-25 minute presentation). If you use these files as a template, with a measure of creativity, you will have no problem creating a presentation as good as the examples below.
• You will need to avoid over-filling each page, i.e., make sure that the bottom edge of the page does not fall below the bottom edge of the screen. This will happen if your image files are too big (vertically) or you have too much text. On a typical web page, the viewer can scroll down; in a talk you don't want to have to do that. This need to actively control the height of each page is one of the downsides of using html for a talk. However, remember that the purpose of using html for this talk is to develop your html skills themselves, as well as to ensure that your talk is web-accessible to a wide variety of potential viewers.
• Many guidelines are available about how to make a good presentation.  Here is one about the basics (pdf).
• Finally, you can of course develop your whole directory structure on your own computer, if you have downloaded Sea Monkey to it, and upload it to /home/www/reu/2009/your_directory.

Sample REU Final Research Presentation