Module Description
The Hons dissertation is a project that runs through your entire final year and allows you to carry out an original piece of scientific research on a subject of your choice, covering contemporary environmental and biological sciences.
This is your opportunity to do some independent in-depth analysis on a topic that most excited you during your undergrad studies. During the project you’ll have the guidance and advice of a dedicated supervisor.
In the autumn semester's Biological and Environmental Sciences Honours Project Start (SCIU9PS), you'll have reviewed the scientific literature to identify your research aims and objectives. You'll have proceeded with planning your research (including obtaining ethical approval and producing a risk assessment) and may have already started to collect relevant data.
Now it is time to analyse and interpret your results using appropriate methodologies. You will report and discuss your results with a written document (the thesis) and an oral presentation or a video. This module will allow you to develop a critical appreciation of key theoretical and practical concepts through your review of the scientific literature, your hands-on research and your dissemination of results through written material and oral presentations.
Location/Method of Study
Stirling/On Campus, UK
Module Objectives
You will gather scientific data and analyse them quantitatively or qualitatively.
The results will be interpreted and discussed in the thesis.
The research findings will be presented in a thesis and a talk.
Additional Costs
£TBC If the project requires fieldwork, there could be additional costs associated with travel to the field site. This is project specific, therefore please discuss with your potential supervisor.
Core Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the module, you should be able to:
collect a dataset that is sufficient to test your hypothesis and/or address your research question;
analyse your dataset using contemporary methods and/or statistical approaches, and present the data in appropriate formats;
report your results to different audiences in the form of a detailed dissertation thesis written in the form of a scientific document and a short oral presentation summarizing your work to a lay audience.
Introductory Reading and Preparatory Work
Please contact your supervisor for a list of readings that is appropriate to your project.
A more general text we recommend is the following (available from the library): Fisher, Elizabeth; Thompson, Richard: Enjoy Writing Your Science Thesis or Dissertation! - a Step-by-Step Guide to Planning and Writing a Thesis or Dissertation for Undergraduate and Graduate Science Students. Second edition, London, Imperial College Press, 2014.
Delivery
Directed Study 30 hours Preparation for scheduled sessions, follow up work, wider reading and practice, completion of assessment tasks, revision, accessing webinars and other materials available on demand
Undirected Study 570 hours Independent activities required to complete the module
Total Study Time 600 hours
Assessment
% of final
grade Learning
Outcomes
Presentation 20 3
Dissertation 80 1,2,3
Coursework: 20%
Dissertation: 80%
More information at: https://portal.stir.ac.uk/calendar/calendar.jsp?modCode=SCIU9PR&_gl=1*g8zjbz*_ga*MTY1OTcwNzEyMS4xNjkyMDM2NjY3*_ga_ENJQ0W7S1M*MTY5MjAzNjY2Ny4xLjEuMTY5MjAzODU3My4wLjAuMA..
