- 20% A 1,000 word critical reflection on the research experience highlighting subject-specific, personal, problem-solving, and transferable skills employed during the placement. Learning Outcome 1

- 80% A 3000 word project write-up , in the general format of a short communication/research paper - title and journal style to be agreed with the module tutor and supervisor. Learning Outcome 2

Additional Assessment Details (including formative feedback / assessment):
Students may submit a draft copy of assessments for formative feedback

This module will allow the student to experience cutting-edge research by working as a research assistant directly under the supervision of a University member of staff. The subject matter will vary depending on the exact discipline area of the staff member, but could include laboratory or field research or a combination of the two. Students will typically collect data as part of the supervisor's research project, input data to spreadsheet/statistical software, carry out analyses and write up the results. The module is self-contained, but will provide vocational experience which will support the student's future career in research. The delivery period will be flexible, and dependent on the nature of the supervisor's research interests. In exceptional cases the placement may be carried out under the supervision of a researcher at another institution provided the module tutor gives approval.

6h of group and individual tutorial time with the module tutor and supervisor concerned with organising the research placement, agreeing the report subject and title, reviewing progress with assessments. Additional contact will also occur throughout the project as the student will be working with the supervisor.

112.5h of research experience (15 days at 7.5h/day), 31.5h additional reading/assessment preparation

Core subject-related texts will be determined by the nature of the research and the specific area of work of the supervisory member of staff. The following statistics texts may prove useful for the analytical phase of the work.

Field, A. (2009) Discovering Statistics Using SPSS 3rd Edition, Sage Publications
Fowler, J.; Cohen, L.; Jarvis, P. (1998) Practical Statistics for Field Biology. Wiley, Chichester.
Van Emden, H.F. (2008) Statistics for Terrified Biologists. Blackwell, Oxford

Library
Statistical packages (e.g. SPSS, Minitab) on networked computers