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This course focuses on developing core skills for medical scientists and will be required for all students with degree intentions in the School of Medical Sciences.
The course focuses on developing the essential skills that are needed to undertake a research projects.
Its aim is to develop an active student-driven approach to learning based on curiosity and exploration of knowledge as opposed to passive acquisition.
Students will be working in groups of 6 and will research a particular topic related to the general theme of “Health and Disease”.
Course Co-ordinator: Professor Mary Cotter (Tel. 555715) m.cotter@abdn.ac.uk
Technical Support: Nigel Graham (Tel 272856) n.graham@abdn.ac.uk
Course Administrator: Jill Reid (Tel 555717) jill.reid@abdn.ac.uk
1. To carry out work in a disciplined manner as part of a team.
2. To take responsibility for ensuring that the group deliver the research project.
3. To understand how to use library facilities to perform a basic literature search and assemble relevant information.
4. To understand the basis of scientific investigation and the importance of hypothesis driven enquiry.
5. To understand the importance of critical appraisal of information sources and the reality of conflicting views on important research topics.
6. To explain and educate your peers on information that you have learned about the group topic.
7. To demonstrate basic computing and communication skills to create an oral presentation.
8. To answer questions on any aspect of the project following the oral presentation.
9. To contribute to the discussion on the oral presentations of other groups in your theme.
10. To understand the meaning of plagiarism and take responsibility for ensuring that the group’s project is a true reflection of the group’s own work.
11. To demonstrate the skills needed to write an individual report of the project under exam conditions.
12. To develop transferable skills related to teamwork, time management, communication and information technology skills.
What do you have to do?
1.Students will work in groups of six to research a topic related to Health and Disease.
2.In week 30, on Wednesday 2nd February 2011 at 10am, you will attend a lecture session in the Zoology Lecture Theatre by the Course Organiser, Professor Mary Cotter, when you will be given an overview of the course and a summary of the topics available for the research project.
3.Immediately following that, students will move to the Ground Floor labs of the College Teaching Facility, where they will be able to find out more about the topics and assemble into groups of six.
4.Students will then ensure that they exchange details about methods of communication between their group and start to plan how they are going to tackle the project.
5.A list of e-mail addresses will then be provided to the academic staff present in the labs and to Nigel Graham. E-mail is the mode of communication with the tutor, the theme leader and the course organiser and Nigel.
6.One student from each group will then be charged with the responsibility of attending a seminar in the QML library seminar room at 12 noon on 2nd February 2011, when there will be advice and help for finding out how best to use literature searches. The student would then disseminate this information to the other members of their group.
7.The recommended literature for searching should be at the level of Textbooks and Reviews, not the primary literature, nor indeed websites.
8.QML library staff will provide drop-in help sessions on Wednesday 9th February between 10-11 and 11-noon for anyone wanting additional help with literature searches. You will have to sign up for these courses on 2nd February.
9.Between weeks 30-36, you will prepare a joint project, which will be presented as an oral presentation, based on Powerpoint on 23rd March. In addition you will write an individual summary of the report under exam conditions in week 42, on 27th April. So the essence of what you are doing between weeks 30-36 is preparing a research report for presentation in oral and written form.
10.One of the most important aspects of the project is that the members of the group explain and inform the rest of the group about the section of the project that they have been responsible for investigating. In the question session following the oral presentation, every member of the group will be expected to answer questions on any aspect of the project. So the expectation is that you will all have an understanding of the project in its entirety.
11.Between weeks 31-37 you will have meetings with a tutor/ facilitator, whose primary job is to ensure that the group are working productively and that you are achieving identified milestones.
12.One member of each group will be appointed as the secretary whose responsibility is to e-mail your tutor and Nigel Graham each week as to progress of the group, ie attendance of all members at meetings and active contribution by all. It is your responsibility to identify anyone who is not pulling their weight.
13.It is your responsibility to manage the project and deliver the oral presentation and individual essays.
14.Wednesday mornings between 10-1 are free for all Level 2 SMS students and the Ground floor College Teaching Facility labs in the Zoology building have been booked for each week. The labs are also booked every Friday between 10-1 so that you can guarantee somewhere to be able to work together in your group with computer availability.
15.There will be help sessions for students who wish for training in Powerpoint.
16.Putting the oral presentation together is the responsibility of all members of the group, although it is up to you to decide how to present it eg. some members make take responsibility for preparing the Powerpoint slides and others actually give the oral presentation.
17.In week 37 on Wednesday 23rd March, you will make the oral presentations. They will be arranged such that four groups present their topics in related themes. The talk should last 20 minutes and there will be 10 minutes of questions. All students will be expected to answer questions on their own project and to ask questions of the other groups about their presentations.
18.In week 42, after the Easter break on Wednesday 27th April, you will attend the Ground Floor labs in the College Teaching Facility where you will write an individual report on the research project under exam conditions. The time allowed for this will be 1 hour.
19.Anyone with Medical Certificates or Good Cause unable to attend on 27th April will be allowed to do their individual reports on 4th May.
Outline of the project
The projects relate to the overall Theme of “Health and Disease”. A number of sub-Themes will be studied, each with 4 topics. The sub-Themes are listed below:
• Genetic diseases
• Auto-immune diseases
• Developmental diseases
• Diseases affecting the Nervous System
• Acquired diseases
• Exercise is the best Medicine
Mostly you will be looking at a specific disease entity and then finding out about the following key areas which will form the common structure for all the projects.
1. Relevance of the disease or condition. How common is it, who does it affect?
2. What are its causes eg are they genetic, autoimmune, viral, lifestyle-induced? Or indeed all of the above?
3. How does the disease affect normal biochemistry and physiology, or structure? (Clearly need to understand normality first).
4. How is the disease treated? What is the rationale for the treatment?
5. Are there any exciting new therapeutic strategies that might be used in the future?
Within this overall structure, different topics will have different emphases, eg if you are looking at “Exercise is the Best Medicine”, then the emphasis is more likely to be on points 3 and 4 above, while, for example, some genetic diseases, may not be amenable to any treatments at the moment.
Milestones to Achieve
1. 0n 2/2/2011. Students decide membership of group and decide on research topic. Theme leaders will then assign you a tutor.
2. By Friday 4/2/2011. All members of the group are in agreement as to how they are going to proceed with their research topic.
3. On or about 9/2/2011, the group presents their tutor with an overall plan including individual responsibilities for researching and preparing each section. The plan may be e-mailed to your tutor after the session on 5/2/2010, at which tutors may or may not be present. Remember it is your project.
4. On or about 16/2/2011, meet tutor to present first draft of each section.
5. On or about 2/3/2011, should have overall project finalised so that the oral presentation can be developed. Tutor needs to have a copy of a project report, which does not have to be more that a draft since you are not presenting a written report as a group.
6. On or about 9/3/2011, meet with tutor, when ALL members of the group MUST attend and be expected to demonstrate understanding of all of the material in the project. Performance in this tutorial will contribute to the course performance mark.
7. Between 9/3/2011 and 17/3/2011. Powerpoint slides to be designed and made and oral presentation decided upon and rehearsed with the group. You may wish to arrange a meeting with your tutor.
8. By 21/3/2011. Powerpoint presentations MUST be e-mailed to the Theme leader so that they can put them together for the sessions on the 23rd March.
9. On Wednesday 23rd March, oral presentation of group project.
ALL students MUST attend.
All students must be able to answer questions on any aspect of the project.
All students should contribute to the questioning of other group presentations.
Contribution to discussion will be a component of the mark you receive from the tutor.
10. On Wednesday 27th April, attend the Ground floor labs in the College Teaching Facility to write a summary of the report under exam conditions within 1 hour.
Assessment and Examinations
The marking scheme for the course is as indicated below:
Course Component Responsible Contribution
Individual essay Tutor 40%
Presentation All Tutors 30%
Other groups in the Theme 10%
Course performance Tutor 15%
Peer group 5%
100%
The Marking sheets that will be used to assess the different components of the course are available on the website and samples will be distributed at the start of the course
Plagiarism or copying from other persons work, either from other students or published material in books or papers and submitted as your own for assessment is considered a form of cheating. This is considered by the University to be a serious offence and will be penalised according to the extent involved and whether it is decided there was an attempt at deliberate deception, or whether bad practice was involved. If you do use information or ideas obtained from textbooks or other published material you must give a precise reference to the source both at the appropriate point in your narrative and in a list of references at the end of your work. Direct quotations from published material should be indicated by quotation marks and referenced in the text as above.
The marking scheme for the course is as indicated below:
INDIVIDUAL ESSAY
40%, Tutor responsible
PRESENTATION
30%, All Tutors responsible
10%, Other groups in the Theme responsible
COURSE PERFORMANCE
15%, Tutor responsible
5%, Peer group responsible
TOTAL: 100%
The Marking sheets that will be used to assess the different components of the course will be distributed at the start of the course.
Prof Mary Cotter
Course Organiser:- Professor Mary Cotter Theme leaders:Professor Mary Cotter, m.cotter@abdn.ac.uk Mr Nigel Graham, n.graham@abdn.ac.uk Dr Martin Collinson, m.collinson@abdn.ac.uk Ms Laura Mahady, l.mahady@abdn.ac.uk Prof Ruth Ross, r.ross@abdn.ac.uk Dr Derryck Shewan, d.shewan@abdn.ac.uk
If students have difficulties with any part of the course that they cannot cope with alone they should notify someone immediately. Your tutor, the course organiser, your Adviser will all be happy to discuss any problems that you may be encountering and help you to resolve them.
Otherwise, you are strongly encouraged to contact any of the following as you see appropriate:
- Course student representatives
- Course co-ordinator (Professor Mary Cotter, m.cotter@abdn.ac.uk)
- Adviser of studies
- Departmental Disabilities Co-ordinator Miss Lindsay McEwan, l.mcewan@abdn.ac.uk
Monitoring Students' Progress
The University operates a system for monitoring students' progress to identify students who may be experiencing difficulties in a particular course.
Because of the nature of this course, attendance is expected at all Wednesday sessions and any meetings arranged by consensus of the group, unless your absence is negotiated with your group.
Failure to attend group meetings or complete an assigned task should be reported to the tutor and Course Organiser.
Failure to attend the tutorial on or around 9th March and the oral presentation on 23rd March will result in an interview with the Course Coordinator and your Class Certificate may be withdrawn.
If you are absent from any meeting and think that you have “good cause”, you must e-mail your tutor, the Course Co-ordinator and Nigel Graham stating clearly the reasons for the absence within 3 working days of any missed meeting.
After the third week of the course if the Course Co-ordinator has concerns about your attendance and/or performance the Registry will be informed. The Registry will then write to you (by e-mail in term-time) to ask you to meet with your Adviser of Studies to discuss your progress. This system is operated to provide support for students who may be experiencing difficulties with their studies. Students are required to attend such meetings with their Adviser of Studies in accordance with General Regulation 8.
If you fail to attend a meeting with your Adviser of Studies, you will be asked to meet with the Convener of the Students' Progress Committee to discuss your progress. In accordance with General Regulation 8, failure to attend this meeting will lead to you being deemed to have withdrawn from the course.
A class certificate is defined as “a certificate confirming that a candidate has attended and duly performed the work prescribed for a course”. Students who have been reported as ‘at risk’ through the system for monitoring students’ progress due to their failure to satisfy the minimum criteria (as outlined above) may be refused a class certificate.
Any student who has been reported once through the University Monitoring scheme, ie has been C6ed, and continues to underperform will be considered for removal of the class certificate.
If you are refused a class certificate, you will receive a letter from the Registry (e-mail in term-time) notifying you of this decision. Students who are refused a class certificate are withdrawn from the course and cannot take the prescribed degree assessment in the current session, nor are eligible to be re-assessed next session, unless and until they qualify for the award of a class certificate by taking the course again in the next session.
If you wish to appeal against the decision to refuse a class certificate should do so in writing to the Head of School within fourteen days of the date of the letter/e-mail notifying you of the decision. If your appeal is unsuccessful, you have the right to lodge an appeal with the relevant Director of Undergraduate Programmes within fourteen days of the date you are informed of the Head of School’s decision.
You will receive a University e-mail account when you register with the University Computing Centre. The University will normally use e-mail to communicate with you during term-time. These e-mails will be sent to your University e-mail account, which you can access using Eudora or SquirrelMail.
It is your responsibility to check your e-mail on a regular (at least weekly) basis and to tidy the contents of your e-mail inbox to ensure that it does not go over quota (see http://www.abdn.ac.uk/diss/email/mailquota.hti for guidance on managing your e-mail quota). It is recommended that you use your University e-mail account to read and respond to University communications. If you already have a non-University e-mail account that you use for personal correspondence, it is possible to set up automatic forwarding of messages from your University e-mail account to your personal e-mail address (see http://www.abdn.ac.uk/local/mail.forward/) but, should you do so, it is your responsibility to ensure that this is done correctly. The University takes no responsibility for delivery of e-mails to non-University accounts.
You should note that failure to check your e-mail or failure to receive e-mail due to being over quota or due to non-delivery of an e-mail forwarded to a non-University e-mail account would not be accepted as a ground for appeal (for further information on appeals procedures, please refer to http://www.abdn.ac.uk/registry/quality/appendix5x17.hti).
Tips for Effective Group Work
• Get to know your group.
• Establish common ground rules, eg:
- attend all meetings.
- keep in contact - you all have access to e-mail if nothing else.
- individual tasks should always be completed by the agreed deadline.
• Make sure you all understand what the task is, and how it will be assessed.
• Make sure all members contribute.
• Share work evenly.
• If some one has special skills (eg, as illustrator, computer wizz, etc) use them to the full.
• Review progress at each meeting.
• Record your decisions (ie, what actions will be taken by who).
• Remember you are responsible for the joint work of your group.
Tips for the Oral Presentation
The oral presentations will be 20 minutes long and will be followed by 10 minutes for discussion. The oral presentation is a group responsibility, but that does not necessarily mean that every member of the group should stand up and speak. Decide amongst yourselves how to make the best use of the talents of your group. Some people may take responsibility for actually making the Powerpoint slides, others may present it. Remember it is a joint effort and the marks you receive are for the overall package.
The talk should be rehearsed for clarity and length and should be in Powerpoint.
The following list might help you in preparing the talks. Very few people are naturally confident when giving oral presentations, but there are several purely mechanical things which will make you appear more prepared and more confident:
• Keep it simple. People generally overestimate the amount of information an audience can take in, so aim to present a coherent and understandable story.
• Tailor the talk to your audience. They will have the same back ground as you, so you should be able to judge the level at which to pitch it.
• Structure the talk as much as possible. Slides containing a limited number of “bulleted” headings and sub-headings will help with this.
• Punctuate the talk. Instead of using new paragraphs, as you would a written report, use a long pause or a new slide.
• Speak to the audience, and not to the board or to your feet.
• Do not read from a script. If you think you are in danger of losing your way, well prepared slides can be used as prompts.
• Keep your slides simple. If there are drawings, make sure the lines are thick, and if there is text, make sure the font is large and visible.
• Rehearse the talk. Practice using the slides, and preferably use the room where the talk will be given to accustom yourself to the layout. Be critical friends to each other. Don’t just say that it is fine, unless you really mean it.
• Point clearly at the relevant parts of the slides as you go through them.
• Prepare for the question session. Try and predict the questions, or even omit an obvious point so that you are well prepared for the inevitable question.
• Empathy is the key to a good talk. Imagine yourself in the shoes of a member of the audience and try to work out what they will think is interesting, confusing or boring.
Topics that were studied in the Themes in 07-08
Acquired Diseases: Exercise and Asthma, Effects of exercise on depression,
Malaria, Obesity, Alcohol Addiction
Diseases of the Immune System:
SLE, Myasthenia Gravis, HIV/AIDS, Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
Developmental Diseases :
Thalidomide, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Progeria, Cleft Palate
Genetic Diseases:
Cystic Fibrosis, Huntington’s Disease, Breast Cancer, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD)
Diseases of the Nervous System:
Seasonal Affective Disorder, Parkinson’s Disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Alzheimer’s Disease
Exercise is Best
Exercise and Osteoporosis, Exercise and Hypertension, Exercise and Heart Disease, Exercise and Depression, Exercise and Cancer, Cheating Aids in Sport
Additional topics that have been suggested this year, as well as some explanation of topics offered:
Lissencephaly = smooth brain, a rare brain formation disorder caused by defective neuronal migration during 12-24 weeks gestation.
Butterfly children = Epidermolysis bullosa, a rare genetic condition that leaves childrens’ skin as fragile as a butterfly’s wing
Autism = Spectrum of developmental disabilities affecting 3 main areas; social communication, social interaction and social imagination.
Progeria = extremely rate genetic condition in which ageing occurs at a very early age. Children usually die <13
NOTE:
Many topics can fall into a number of categories, different approaches can be taken. Students are free to come up with their own topics that they have a real interest in finding out about.
PLEASE think about what you might like to do so that when you come next Wednesday you are ready to start.
