This module is not currently running in 2024 to 2025.
For dissertation projects:
Following discussion with their supervisors, students will generate their own title for a dissertation. Preparation of the dissertation is described below.
For practical projects:
This extended project will be particularly suited to students who have entered the programme with a first degree in the sciences. The project will involve the development of an extensive "package", using appropriate media to communicate scientific principles, which can subsequently be used by appropriate non-specialist audiences. As part of the project, students must research their chosen audience to ascertain their needs in terms of communicating science. The project must be informed by a period of in-depth research on the scientific topic and preparation of a dissertation. Having developed a suitable package of activities, students will then develop evaluation methods to monitor their project work, and apply these methods to evaluate effectiveness. Interpretation of evaluation data will be undertaken during the final stages of the project.
Students will meet with their supervisors to discuss their work in progress.
They can expect a total of up to 4 hours' one-to-one contact with their supervisor in the course of preparing their work during the summer term. Meetings with a supervisor are guaranteed within term-time; over the summer vacation meetings are at the supervisor's discretion. By this time students are expected to have prepared themselves adequately to complete their dissertation without further assistance.
Students are expected to put in a total of 600 hours' work in the preparation of their project.
The dissertation should be 12,000 words long.
For dissertation projects:
The module will be 100% assessed on the basis of the written dissertation. Students are expected to include research on both primary and secondary sources. They are expected to engage with scholarship and critical debates connected with their chosen field of study.
For practical projects:
20% of the mark will be awarded for a research dissertation on the topic, to be agreed after discussion with the student and academic supervisor (10,000 words).
10% of the mark will be for a written document outlining the aims of the project, needs of the audience, and how these needs will be matched by the proposed activities (5,000 words).
50% of the mark will be for the science communication package developed. The mark will include the research undertaken on the audience, appropriateness of the material for the audience, depth of science and presentation.
20% of the mark will be awarded for evaluation strategy and the interpretation of evaluation data (5,000 words plus appendices).
Each student's reading list will be unique, based upon their chosen area of research. They will discuss possible readings with their chosen supervisor. The supervisor will make some suggestions but it is part of the research brief that students should generate their own bibliographies.
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
The intended subject specific learning outcomes:
a. They will have improved their appreciation of the social and cultural mechanisms that shape the production of scientific knowledge
b. They will understand the role of communicational media in propagating and shaping scientific knowledge
c. An appreciation of how research leads to knowledge
d. Students will gain in-depth knowledge of a chosen episode in the history of science from the scientific revolution to the present
e. They will understand key methods in the history of science
f. Students will have an in-depth understanding of an advanced research topic
g. Develop ability to simplify complex scientific information for a non-scientific audience
The intended generic learning outcomes:
h. Through the use of primary texts as well as secondary sources, students will be able to marshal information effectively
i. They will develop a critical, analytic perspective on such information
j. Through encountering new critical perspectives on science, students will develop independence of thought
k. The dissertation will improve students' communication
l. Students will enhance their proficiency with regard to improving their own learning and performance
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