Some very brief outlines of a few of the case studies we have surfaced during the project . More details are on the individual case study pages
Graduate stories: This graduate survey was carried out as a summer vacation project in 2007 by Cassie Philp (a final year MPhys student from physics at Edinburgh). The aim was twofold: to elucidate what some recent graduates from Physics at Edinburgh thought were the attributes that they took away from their degree as well as to highlight the breadth of careers graduates go on to after graduation. Two hundred graduates were contacted via an online survey, of which 32 completed the mostly free-text questionnaire. A subset of graduates were contacted and interviewed by phone. Some of the most valued attributes named by the graduates were time management, study skills, perseverance to grasp difficult concepts, presentation skills as well as physics-specific skills (analytical skills, problem-solving skills).
Strathclyde Integrated Transferable Skills (Debbie Willison, University of Strathclyde): Transferable skills are developed in a series of classes in 1st, 2nd and 3rd year courses, all of which are compulsory for chemistry students. In year one, the focus is on IT skills and personal development planning (PDP). In year two, the course covers chemical drawing, scientific writing and team working. In year 3, there are oral and poster presentations, a quality systems workshop and PDP is revisited. Finally, in year five, PDP is revisited, and an oral presentation given to staff and peers is videotaped and analyzed to give detailed feedback.
Glasgow physics “experimental tutorials” (Peter Sneddon)
New first year physics labs in Glasgow (introduced in the 2006-2007 academic year, 175 students per year) aim to link theory and experiment. After working on a theoretical question, students use the theory in an experiment on exactly the same phenomenon. The labs are also closely linked to the course material. Lab scripts have been rewritten, replacing prescriptive, recipe-style instructions by successively more open scripts that give students freedom to decide how to analyze their data. An additional more open-ended work section is included for extra credit. Emphasis has been placed on modern data acquisition systems, mirroring research style methodology.
Edinburgh Physics Workshops (Simon Bates)
These workshops have been running for 6 years. They consist of two or three hour long collaborative group working problem-solving sessions in various 1st and 2nd year physics courses. In the sessions, groups of five to six students (equipped with a flipchart) work on problem sets with facilitators to help them. Some of the problems are written up and submitted each week, forming part of the continuous assessment (30% of the total mark). The focus of the workshops is on improving thinking skills, such as presenting material, stating and defending a point of view. The workshops aim to make students engage actively with the material and become autonomous learners.
St Andrews Transferable Skills module (Bruce Sinclair)
This 3rd year module runs over two semesters, with weekly small group facilitator sessions. The module aims for students to extend their physics knowledge as well as enhancing skills in finding and critically evaluating information, communicating orally and in written form, team work, and IT skills. Assignments include a team skills exercise, a comparison of two research papers, group work on open, context-rich physics based problems, three oral presentations, a review article, personal development planning and a proposal for a new teaching lab experiment or observation time on a telescope that needs to be defended in front of a mock research grant panel. The final oral presentation is given at a “conference” weekend in front of peers and members of staff.
Project training for 3rd year students at Strathclyde Physics (Nigel Langford).
This 3rd year physics course aims to provide skills necessary for project work, such as literature skills, communication skills, scientific writing skills and critical analysis skills. The course consists of interactive lectures with most of the time spent working in groups. Assessment is in the form of written assignments, poster- and oral presentations. The course has been running for 10 years, and gives students direct practical exposure to skills they need for their final year project.
Use of the Liverpool telescope in first year education (Andrew Newsam)
The University runs a number of level one distance learning courses in astronomy that use the Liverpool Telescope, with the intent or bringing the latest in astronomical knowledge and research to a non-specialist audience. Students interact with their tutor via email, phone and video-conference. Each course covers a different area of astronomy, such as stars and planetary atmospheres. The Liverpool Telescope is the world’s largest fully robotic telescope. Students write proposals for observation time; the best proposals are then carried out. Assignments use real data from the telescope taken for the students. Students go through all stages of the research process from planning an observation, collecting data, data reduction and data analysis.
Reinvented Labs: (Paul Taylor and Joanna Geden, Warwick)
The first year organic chemistry lab was redesigned with the aim of promoting enquiry-based learning of organic chemistry. Only minor changes were necessary to the lab equipment. The main modifications were to the lab manuals: experiments were restyled as a problem to be solved and all references to the expected outcome removed. The experimental procedure was changed to be in the style of methods published in research journals. Small-group prelab sessions with assessed questions ensured that students read the lab script prior to the lab session.
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