Project workshop by https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i please add interesting ways you have conducted final year, lab rotation or masters projects here that were beneficial to student experience but had a positive impact on workload efficiency en-us 2022-05-18 15:42:47 UTC 2022-06-08 10:42:09 UTC hello@padlet.com Y3 group projects - LIFE3107 https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2193024856 2 or more academics pool students to tackle a set of related projects.

Supervision and techniques are shared across the groups, this reduces hand-on supervision by 1/2-1/3.

Reduced write-up word count by half (8000  to 3000 +1000); Nature style.

Works well with screening projects or others requiring cloning of multiple elements.]]> 2022-05-20 13:43:42 UTC https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2193024856 Word count mrzsh4 https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2193482177 The word count limit of the dissertations should not be linked to workload tariffs: it takes for example more time to review a brilliant 5,000-word dissertation than a straight-away rejectable 10,000-word one. Yet the former is tariffed half that of the latter.

Because word limits are linked to workload tariffs, markers are happy to keep these limits as high as possible and therefore opposed to see their workload tariffs reduced by bringing these numbers down.]]> 2022-05-20 20:20:55 UTC https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2193482177 Examples of previous group projects https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2195523814 2022-05-23 08:31:06 UTC https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2195523814 A main driver for the homebase/project decisions of our the BioMed Sci students is their ambition to be among the authors of a publication. This is a big ask for a project with an effective results gathering time of 1-11/2 months. I have managed that with results that were generate with projects over a few years - and ended up having to pay for the page charges out of my own pocket since the school does not seem to have a pot of money for that. In my eyes, it is effective to have the students work in small groups (2-4) and sharing the data while each one writes up on her/his own. The students will support each other if all of them are working on similar or the same topic, which significantly reduces supervisor time. The main effort is then helping them with the interpretation of their results and correcting their drafts. https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2211543543 2022-06-05 21:20:54 UTC https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2211543543 Write ups should follow a shortish format journal article style (e.g. Biology Letters) https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2213512729 This helps the students in multiple ways - it is shorter, there are more examples to follow, the website has specific guidance which we can adapt - it helps us in multiple ways also- the resouces/guidelines are there to adapt, it keeps the word count lower, encourages more decipherable content...etc]]> 2022-06-07 11:40:06 UTC https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2213512729 I provide various templates for writing methods and results https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2213515776 It gives the student a good guide to how to include the stats into the descriptions of their results (for example) and key points like referring to figures properly etc. It helps them think about what the stats are doing and why,and how they link to their descriptions - and also makes them think about structuring methods and results more coherently]]> 2022-06-07 11:43:32 UTC https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2213515776 group project https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2214788844 Have a failsafe in case of things that don't work

]]> 2022-06-08 09:54:39 UTC https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2214788844 Use templates https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2214789289 Templates are really helpful to answer common questions. Also good discriminators as students have varying ability to adapt them ]]> 2022-06-08 09:55:08 UTC https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2214789289 Large datasets and bioinformatics https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2214789948 Welcome collaborations with people who have access to large data sets or bioinformatics skills]]> 2022-06-08 09:55:52 UTC https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2214789948 Availability of previous project writeups https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2214791492 Making these available helps?]]> 2022-06-08 09:57:28 UTC https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2214791492 Write ups https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2214798360 3rd year students are trainees. Publication is great but not a given. Giving them skills to emulate a publication is great, especially with shorter word counts, templates to follow, instructions for authors etc. ]]> 2022-06-08 10:04:10 UTC https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2214798360 Journal format mariatoledo11 https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2214799827 All supervisors have a "template" of what to expect
But should be more than the 4K words that usually asked in journals]]> 2022-06-08 10:05:48 UTC https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2214799827 mariatoledo11 https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2214801397 Some projects are better suited for a results+discussion format]]> 2022-06-08 10:07:42 UTC https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2214801397 word limit problem mariatoledo11 https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2214802653 Some students write too much and in order to fit to the word limit they cut sentences/words that later on makes very difficult understand what they want to say]]> 2022-06-08 10:09:04 UTC https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2214802653 Our project final submission is in a Journal Article Format. matthewjacques https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2214802802 We provide all students with a 5,000 word limit, along with an example/template journal formatting guidance which the majority of them follow (Supervisors can advise a different journal if they wish but this should be noted in the submission - majority stick with the example guidance)]]> 2022-06-08 10:09:15 UTC https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2214802802 What is a project? https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2214823144 Projects should develop research skills. This can be in a wet lab or in a variety of other ways. The learning outcomes for projects should be pretty standard. A generic one to account for practical or research skills relevant to the specific project can be included]]> 2022-06-08 10:31:36 UTC https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2214823144 Ian's group project details if you want them (ian kerr) iankerrsbd https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2214830088 autumn 2 hours/week: modelling and docking to design a new mutant in a bacterial transporter protein with an easily measurable function
spring 1.5d/week for 6-7 weeks: PCR mutagenesis; agarose gels; plasmid prep; DNA sequencing; transformation into expression strain; expression of protein in bacteria; membrane preps; SDS-PAGE; functional assay. We have WT (positive) and catalytically inactive (negative) controls that ALL students can use. We have a bank of historical mutants students can "dip in to" if their mutagenesis fails. All students can pool their mutant data to get a "bigger picture" (and this helps distinguish better students in the write up because only the very good ones can take a step back and appreciate other colleagues' data)

Pros: I get to be in the lab guaranteed 10-12 days/year. Students make independent choices and have to justify those in their write up --> whether or not they go on to lab work in the future this is an important employability skill.

Cons: if we expand we put pressure on space and technical support in the teaching labs.]]> 2022-06-08 10:40:08 UTC https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2214830088 What are the learnig objective and outcomes? https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2214831850 to produce a piece of level 3/4 scholarship that adheres to style of a scientific publication through the processes of :literature review; the scientific method; data presentation, description and analyses; data interpretation,synthesis,contextualization and critique]]> 2022-06-08 10:42:09 UTC https://padlet.com/susananderson8/nmf98xi50u3vhl9i/wish/2214831850