In this course the student will undertake independent research under the supervision of a member of academic staff and prepare a report and a poster presentation on the research project. It contains a very high level of practical work.
Coordinator: Prof Ian Wood
- Module details
Title MSci Independent Project UG Code GEOL0072 Coordinator Prof Ian Wood Other Contributors Term 1 & 2 Credit 45 credits Written Exam Coursework 90% Poster Presentation 10% Pre-Requisites Entry into MSci year Maths & Stats Content and Requirement Various depending upon the project Categorizing Student Performance Levels - Content
A course for all Earth Science MSci students with an independent project relating to their specific degree programme, normally to include a literature review, an element of data acquisition or analysis (laboratory or field-based) and a proposal for future research.
AIMS
- to assess the student’s ability to provide a critical synthesis of a scientific problem;
- to enable a student to derive original laboratory or field data, and/or to seek and utilise published data;
- to train a student to assess those data and draw appropriate conclusions;
- to learn how to communicate the experimental strategy, results and conclusions effectively;
- to provide training in how to formulate a research problem.
OUTCOMES
Knowledge and Understanding:
- an in-depth understanding of a specialised area related to the student’s degree programme;
- the principles and methodology of experimental techniques and of data handling and evaluation.
Intellectual Outcomes:
- a highly developed ability to consider issues from a wide range of perspectives and to draw on appropriate concepts and values in arriving at a critical assessment;
- ability to define problems, devise and evaluate possible solutions, and to solve elegantly routine and unfamiliar problems;
- appreciation of the use and limitations of data in testing an hypothesis.
Practical and Transferable Outcomes:
- a highly developed ability to analyse, synthesise, summarise and evaluate critically information from academic literature, ideas, interpretations and other sources;
- the ability to formulate and execute a research programme;
- the ability to communicate effectively through the research report and a poster presentation;
- highly developed critical approach to academic literature and other sources of information.