3 EC
Semester 1 & 2, period 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
5264REWO3Y
| Owner | Master Earth Sciences |
| Coordinator | dr. W.M. de Boer |
| Part of | Master Earth Sciences, |
When you have finished your Master’s program of Earth Sciences, it is expected you will be fully equipped to function as a future researcher or an environmental manager in a professional organization. The course Research Workshop offers some necessary guidance and support to get you there. It aims at offering you an open, safe, and challenging learning space in which you can further develop your professional attitude and skills.
The course is mandatory in all tracks of the Earth Sciences MSc at UvA.
The Research Workshop is a platform where you present your Literature Review (mandatory for students started in September 2023 or later) or your research proposal (mandatory for students started in September 2022 or earlier). And where you discuss your research results of your Master Thesis with teachers and fellow students. Also you may present what you have learned during your internship that forms part of the Environmental Management track.
All the presentation blocks are held on the first Wednesday afternoon of each month, except for August and September. Between those dates, extra dates are planned this academic year. See Datanose for the exact dates, times and locations.
This course guide explains what you have to do to successfully complete the course Research Workshop and to get the most out of it for yourself, as well as for the Earth Science student community at UvA.
As for the Research Workshop, you are provided with a platform of monthly arranged meetings to present your work and ideas, take notice of work by others, and to discuss, question and provide feedback to each other’s work. It is also possible to publish the results of you master thesis and/or your internship in an ESRI Storymap. In this way a nice and user-friendly website is available for creating and sharing useful knowledge for fellow master ES students. See also www.gis-studio.nl
The Research Workshops not only provide you with the opportunity to train yourself but also to show your qualities and build-up a small portfolio which may be very relevant in your next career steps. At the end of the course you can for instance prove that you are able to effectively present complex information in an accessible way (using powerpoints, slide reports or video films) and provide and process constructive critical feedback.
All students (of all tracks) will have to attend at least 12 Research Workshops in the course of the master phase (2 or more years).
|
Activity |
Hours |
|
|
Hoorcollege |
2 |
|
|
Attending Presentations |
24 |
this is 6 x 4 hours per year (as a mean per year) |
|
2 own presentations |
12 |
|
|
Giving feedback (on oral and on written work) |
4 |
|
|
Total |
42 |
(1.5 EC x 28 hours) Note: in two years 84 hours = 3 EC |
The Research Workshop is a platform where you present your research proposal and/or your literature review and discuss your research results with teachers and fellow students. Also you may present what you have learned during your internship that forms part of the Environmental Management track.
Different timeslots are available for different types of presentations: Special talks, Internships and Proposals: 10 minutes including 2 minutes for questions, Literature reviews: 10 minutes including 2 minutes for questions, Thesis presentations: 15 minutes including 5 minutes for questions.
Everybody is supposed to attend the meeting in person. This is not a hybrid meeting. There will be NO central organized Zoom session, except for unusual circumstances as were in Corona-times and when there is a storm, very bad weather, demo, etc.
And you will not be noted on the presence list if you join via Zoom on a laptop of somebody else in the lecture room, without permission of the coordinator. We use Zoom only for presenters, being on an internship or fieldwork abroad.
Additional requirements for this course:
This programme does not have requirements concerning attendance (TER part B). Additional requirements for this course: The standard rules of attendance do not apply, as you are free to choose whenever you want to take part in a Research Workshop.
Participation in a Research Workshop
Be aware that if you present your MSc research proposal or report, or your literature review, you have to make sure that your supervisor(s) can also attend that Research Workshop. For this supervisor will have to perform the role of assessor for the courses Master Thesis and/or Literature Review.
Make sure that you register your attendance by signing the digital attendance sheet in each Research Workshop (URL is to be found on www.gis-studio.nl) or signing with your name in the chat of the Zoom or Teams meeting, at the start as well as at the end of the Zoom\Teams-session in which the Research Workshop is held. Your camera must be on in the Zoom\Teams-session. If these requirements are not met, there will be no attendance registred in Datanose for you for this RWS. This holds also for signing in more than 5 minutes late or leaving more than 5 minutes earlier than the end. Exceptions can be granted by the course coordinator, after consulting him in time (that is: before the RWS meeting).
Presence for the Research Workshop implies being present during the entire meeting, if it takes less than 2 hours. Longer meetings (mostly > 3 hours) can be split into two blocks (in time after each other on the same afternoon) by the course coordinator, for which case an announcement on Canvas will be made. Students can then choose which presentation block they wish to follow. In that case, attendance of one block in sufficient.
Obviously, the coordinator is responsible for organizing and accurately administering the course. However, it is your responsibility to make sure that the coordinator can do his job properly: your activities and output are not registered „automatically‟: you are responsible for your plans, your planning and your output and you have to take action yourself. Part of this responsibility is that you have to keep track of your own records in a portfolio. On Canvas you can find a personal eJournal portfolio for this. This is an addition to Canvas in which you can register your portfolio items. Again, we want to emphasize here that you will be responsible for the fulfilment of the requirements to complete this course. Nobody will remind or warn you if you postpone your presentations for the Research Workshops or do not submit your feedback on presentions held by other students.
Please be aware that there are no exceptions if you do not fulfil all demands prior to your graduation date.
| Item and weight | Details |
|
Final grade |
Assessment and grading system for students started with their Master Earth Sciences AFTER September 1st 2024
You must keep track of your proceedings by using the eJournal module on Canvas.
To complete the course Research Workshop, you’ll have to be able to show that you have fulfilled all requirements (see below) and that you have received a ‘Pass’ for each of them.
From the academic year 2024-2025 on, we adopted a pass/fail grade system with the requirements outlined below.
For a pass you, as a the student, will need to:
Compulsory tasks
Attend a minimum of 12 research workshops over the course of two years (or as long as one takes to complete the entire MSc Earth Sciences curriculum) and:
In addition, a student needs to choose two tasks from the list below:
Additional tasks (choose two)
With this pass/fail approach we have re-ascertained that the study load for this 3EC module remains under the required maximum study load. This does mean that this module cannot be included in calculating the average grade for the Cum Laude verdict of the Master Earth Science programme. Another consequence is that the study cannot be finished without passing this mandatory module.
Assessment and grading system for students started with their Master Earth Sciences BEFORE September 1st 2024
You must keep track of your proceedings by using the eJournal module on Canvas. On top of that, on Canvas you can find a downloadable Excel sheet for keeping track of your portfolio building. This document also shows you how the different parts of the course are graded. Some students prefer the Excel file, but eJounal is leading and mandatory to fill in.
To complete the course Research Workshop, you’ll have to be able to show that you have fulfilled all requirements and that you have received a ‘Pass’ for each of them.
The activities mentioned in Table 1 below are minimum requirements when fulfilled lead to a grade of 6.0. To obtain a higher grade, you would need to do something extra. Table 2 provides an overview of the potential ways to get additional points on top of the basic grade to pass for this module which is a six out of ten.
Table 1. Required activities for completion of the course Research Workshop (students started before September 1st 2024)
|
Required activities |
Minimum amount |
|
all tracks |
|
|
|
12 1
1
1 |
|
|
EM track 1 |
[1] Be aware that if you present your MSc research proposal or report, or your literature review, you have to make sure that your supervisor(s) can also attend that Research Workshop. For this supervisor will have to perform the role of assessor for the courses Master Thesis and/or Literature Review.
We work with a credit system: for each Research Workshop you attend you’ll receive 1 credit point. In order to pass this course you are required to collect 12 credits by attending 12 Research Workshop sessions in the course of two (or more) years.
On top of this basic, minimal attendance of Research Workshops, you can earn extra credit points. These extra credit points will add to a bonus on your final grade. For instance, if you follow an external scientific symposium of one day, you can earn one extra credit points. And for every two hours of attending a scientific lecture you will receive 0.5 credit point.
You can also deserve extra bonus points by attending, presenting at or assisting in organisation of a seminar, symposium or congress. In addition, making an ESRI Storymap of you master thesis or internship or organising alumni presentations will entitle you to earn 0.5 bonus point. Besides these activities you may come up with your own ideas – if you have any do not hesitate to contact the course coordinator.
The RWS credit/bonus reward system is mainly designed to reward extracurricular academic activities that either relate to earth science activities outside the ES Master Programme or its promotion and outreach. Studying Dutch for instance can therefore not be regarded as such, if it were for example a course in Dutch earth science terminology then it could be considered.
Table 2: Overview of the potential ways to acquire additional points (students started before September 1st 2024)
|
Additional activities
|
Additional points in grade or credits (if mentioned) |
|
BONUS points |
|
|
Attend at least 4 additional Research Workshops during your Master’s phase |
+0.25 bonuspoint |
|
(Co-)Write a scientific article for a journal, present a poster or oral presentation on an scientific symposium |
+ 0.25 or higher (max +1.0) bonuspoint |
|
Give additional written feedback on at least 2 written research proposals, literature reviews or theses |
+0.5 bonuspoint |
|
Give written feedback on at least 10 oral presentations during your Master’s phase |
+0.5 bonuspoint |
|
(Co-)Write a scientific article for a journal, present a poster or give an oral presentation on a scientific symposium |
+0.25 - +1.0 bonuspoint |
|
Make a Story Map in ArcGIS Online of your Master Thesis or Internship |
+0.5 bonuspoint |
|
Moderating an academic Wiki/ website/ blog |
+0.5 or higher (max 1.5) bonuspoint |
|
Make a Story Map in ArcGIS Online of your Master Thesis or Internship |
+0.5 bonuspoint |
|
CREDIT points |
|
|
Organize a seminar around a self-chosen topic |
1, 2 or 3 credits |
|
Attending a symposium |
half a day 0.5 credit, whole day 1 credit 2 days 2 credits 3 days 3 credits |
|
(co-)organising a symposium or seminar or (open-air) lecture or excursion around a self-chosen topic |
1, 2 or 3 credits |
| For every 4 extra credits collected (in a period of two years) | +0.5 (max of +1.0) bonuspoint |
|
|
|
|
Any other ideas? Let us know! |
to be determined by coordinator |
Whenever you decide it is time to finish the course, you will be graded according to the quantity and quality of your work, which will be verified based on the content of your eJournal portfolio.
If you have any additional ideas of interesting additional activities that are not listed, please contact the coordinator to consult with him whether this could earn you additional credits or points.
In the Research Workshops, the presentations will be given feedback using the feedback forms for Research Proposal, Research Report, Literature Review or Internship (see folder Presentation Feedback Forms on Canvas). The assessment and grading of the presentations is NOT part of the RWS course, but part of other courses.
Contact the course coordinator to make an appointment for inspection of your portfolio at the end of your master period. He will ask you to finish your eJournal on Canvas and will grade your portfolio. There will be communication, about the content and quality of the uploaded portfolio files and the final grade, between the student and the course coordinator before he uploads the final grade to Canvas/Datanose/SIS. After uploading to Canvas/Datanose, the grade will be tranfered to SIS automatically within a few working days.
The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.student.uva.nl
See text above.
Enrolment for the Research Workshop course will be done ONLY for the new students each year automatically for all MSc Earth Sciences students.
For second year and older master students: Please enroll in June each year for the next year Research Workshop (5264REWO3Y) course! Fully automatic registration is only available for fresh first-year students (= students starting after each summer).
For senior years, the default is that students register themselves. Like you will - as a rule - also have to register for other courses. If you do not enroll, the coordinator cannot register your attendance nor grade your portfolio at the end of the course.
Note for fifth year and older master students:
the old course Research Workshop & Skills Lab (5264RWSL6Y) for 6 EC changed as of September 2021
Up until the academic year 2020-2021 the combined course Research Workshop & Skills Lab (5264RWSL6Y) of 6 EC existed. All students were enrolled in this course, that run over the 2 years of their programme.
As of the academic year 2021-2022, the course does not exist anymore. It was replaced by two separate parts:
All students starting in 2021-2022 or later will follow the combination of courses as described above.
Transitional Arrangement for students that started in 2020-2021 or earlier
Students that have started their programme in 2020-2021 or earlier and have followed part of the course Research Workshop & Skills Lab (5264RWSL6Y). For these students, the following transitional arrangements apply:
Course enrolment