Unit information: Research Project in 2018/19

Unit name	Research Project
Unit code	BIOC30003
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 4 (weeks 1-24)
Unit director	Professor. Kelly Moule
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	Molecular Cell Biology BIOC20001, Macromolecular Structure, Dynamics and Function BIOC20002, Recombinant DNA Technology MOLG22100 and Gene Expression and Rearrangement MOLG22200
Co-requisites	Advanced Cell Biology BIOC30601 The Dynamic Proteome BIOC30604 Cellular Information BIOC30602 Advanced Options in Biochemistry BIOC30600
School/department	School of Biochemistry
Faculty	Faculty of Life Sciences

Description including Unit Aims

Students will undertake a substantial piece of independent project work on this unit. The Research Project will consist of a 24 day, supervised research project normally undertaken in one of the research labs in the School. The following types of project are usually available:

• “Wet”, lab-based projects
• “Dry” computer-based projects, normally involving data-mining/analysis or molecular modelling
• “iProjects” which will involve investigating a hypothesis or problem that is current to the supervisor’s research, exploring the background to the problem through the available literature, analysing critically available information pertaining to the problem and proposing/assessing ways of addressing the problem experimentally
• Education or School-based projects carried out either in a local school or involving the research and development of education materials suitable for undergraduate education (e.g. on-line tutorials, practicals, etc)

Students will be allowed to state a preference for the project they wish to undertake.

The unit aims to develop key research and analytical skills in biochemistry. Students will gain experience of biochemical research and gain an understanding of scientific enquiry through project work.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Students will be able to:

• Undertake supervised research to investigate research questions
• Work independently and as part of a lab team as appropriate
• Collect, analyse and interpret data
• Write up their experimental findings as a research report
• Undertake self-directed background reading of the primary scientific literature to inform their research report
• Present their findings and answer questions on their research in a viva

Teaching Information

Supervised lab work

Assessment Information

For learning (formative)

Students will receive feedback on a draft version of their project report

Students will give an informal talk to their lab group

Of learning (summative)

Practical Project Report (100%)

The mark for the unit is determined as follows:

•performance in the project (mark from project supervisor) 20%

•project report (mark determined as outlined below) 75%

•viva voce (mark from second marker) 5%

Project report: maximum word count is 5,500 for the research project report. If this maximum word count is exceeded, word count penalties will only be applied to the mark awarded for the report. The project report is assessed independently by the project supervisor and the second marker, who agree a single final mark. If the two markers are unable to agree a final mark, the Unit Director or nominee will assess the report and the comments of the two markers and decide the final mark Vivas will either be conducted in the presence of another member of staff or will be audio-recorded. Audio recordings will only be reviewed in the event of a query into the conduct of the viva exam.

Reading and References

Reviews and articles from the primary scientific Literature