6 EC
Semester 1 & 2, period 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
5264RWSL6Y
| Owner | Master Earth Sciences |
| Coordinator | dr. W.M. de Boer |
| Part of | Master Earth Sciences, Master Earth Sciences, |
When you have finished your Master’s program of Earth Sciences, it is expected you will be functioning as a future researcher or an environmental manager in a professional organization. The course Research Workshop & Skills Labs offers the necessary guidance and support to get you there. It aims at offering students an open, safe, and challenging learning space in which they can further develop their professional attitude and skills. The course is mandatory in all three tracks of the Earth Sciences MSc at UvA: Geo-ecological Dynamics (GD), Future Planet Ecosystem Science (FPES) and Environmental Management (EM).
The Research Workshop is a platform where you present your research proposal 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. In the Skills Labs, you learn to refine your academic reasoning skills, strengthen your presentation skills, and enhance your capacity for critical (self-) reflection and providing constructive feedback. Moreover, in the Skills Labs you can obtain important 21st century skills and matching attitudes, such as networking and creative thinking. All in all, the Research Workshop & Skills Labs aims to support your further professionalization throughout your (student) career.
This course guide explains what you have to do to successfully complete the course Research Workshop & Skills Labs and to get the most out of it for yourself, as well as for the Earth Science student community at UvA.
The course objectives can be obtained in different ways:
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. Also a wiki-site is available for creating and sharing useful knowledge.
Furthermore, at regular intervals, we will organize Skills Labs which offer training in important skills and attitudes. Since the students taking part in the Earth Sciences Master come from all over the world and have a variety of backgrounds, we cannot assume everybody starts at the same level. So we make a distinction between various levels of skills. Which Skills Labs you select to participate in, will partly depend on your background and partly on the track you choose. In general you are free to choose whatever you like, under the restrictions that apply for the various Skills Labs (certain Skills Labs require particular prior knowledge and/or training, see the Skills Lab Programme, available on Canvas, for further explanation), and the restrictions that apply for each of the tracks (see Table 1).
The Research Workshops and Skills Labs 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 films), provide constructive critical feedback, and that you can reflect on your own functioning and development.
Students who do the track Geo-ecological Dynamics (GED-ers) or Future Planet Ecosystem Science (FPES-ers) will have to attend at least 12 Research Workshops & do 4 Skills Labs, while students who do the track Environmental Management (EM-ers) are required to participate in at least 6 Skills Labs & attend at least 10 Research Workshops.
Dr. Thijs de Boer is overall coordinator of the Research Workshop, and Dr. Coyan Tromp is coordinating the Skills Labs. Information about the planned Research Workshops & Skills Labs can be found via https://datanose.nl/#course[78465].
Visit this site regularly to find updates of the schedule.
Research Workshops
The Research Workshop is a platform where you present your research proposal 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 questions, Literature reviews: 15 minutes including questions, Thesis presentations: 20 minutes including questions.
Skills Labs
Skill Labs are an essential element of the course. We offer a blended range of online and offline modules for training professional skills:
Below, the objectives of these various educational forms are explained in more detail.
Face-to-face Skills Labs: at regular intervals, we organize Skills Labs where students can acquire important 21st Century Skills and matching attitudes. These take the form of hands-on Skills Labs related to skills or attitudes that prepare master students for their work in a professional field or help them become knowledge brokers at the interface of Science & Society. Students can select the Skills Labs that match with their ambitions and talents. As said, skills training implies active involvement which may require preparation beforehand and finishing assignments after the Skills Lab.
The following face-to-face Skills Labs are offered:
Self-tuition and deficiency modules: To accommodate for individual differences in prior education, study skills, learning styles, motives and talents amongst our international student population, we offer self-tuition modules that can serve as deficiency modules. For instance, a foreign student who has never been acquainted with presenting in his/her bachelor, might need to learn about the basic rules before he/she starts presenting research proposals and reports in the master. Or a student with a science bachelor who is not familiar with valid scientific reasoning might have to do a self-tuition on this topic in order to become more familiar with that skill. Nevertheless, fulfilling the requirements of self-tuition Skills Labs can also earn you some credits (see the Canvas site for further details). The following online self-tuitions are offered to repair deficiencies (*note some modules will be available in the near future) :
Besides, there are also self-tuitions on:
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): In addition to the self-tuitions, we have also selected some MOOCs that may be of interest to our students:
We are also open to suggestions from students themselves, not only with regard to MOOCs they find an interesting addition to their programme, but also when they have ideas for Skills Labs or self-tuitions that they would like to develop themselves (see the explanation of the Bonus system below).
On Canvas you will find the exact descriptions of the Skills Labs, including the requirements as far as preparatory assignments and deliverables are concerned.
There it is also indicated how many credits you can earn per module.
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 or a Skills Lab. Below, it is indicated what you need to to register for participation in a Research Workshop or a Skills Lab.
Participation in a Research Workshop
Participation in a Skills Lab
It is wise to plan your work at the beginning of your Master’s phase, schedule your presentations for the Research Workshop as soon as possible, and select the Skills Labs you want to attend. Note that for the Skills Labs, there is a minimum of required attendees (8 participants) and a maximum number of 22. So make sure you have an alternative option in case one of your preferred Skills Labs is overbooked or cancelled.
Table 1. Required activities for completion of the course Research Workshop & Skills Labs
|
Required activities |
Minimum amount |
|
|
GD/FPES |
EM |
|
|
Presence at / Participation in Research Workshops, where you also
|
12 4 1 1 1 |
10 4 1 1 1 |
|
Participation in Skills Labs, with following restrictions: - Making Self-Tuitions to work away deficiencies - Participation in ‘Live’ Skills Labs |
4 Max. 1 credit in total Min. 3 |
6 Max. 1 credit in total Min. 5 |
[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 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.
Enhancing your skills can only be achieved by active practicing, very similar to training in sports or exercise with a music instrument. So be prepared that participation does not merely mean attending meetings – only sitting in and listening. It implies active involvement and may also require preparation beforehand and finishing assignments after training.
Make sure that you register your attendance by means of digital registration or the attendance sheets that are distributed during each Research Workshop and Skills Lab.
Presence for the Research Workshop implies being present during the entire meeting, if it takes less than 2 hours, or else being present for at least 2 hours.
Presence for a Skills Lab means you have participated in the whole Skills Lab meeting, exception being the self-tuition Skills Labs. Not participating in a Skills Lab you have committed yourself to (by registering for participation in a particular Skills Lab) will be regarded as absenteeism. If you are absent twice it will mean that for the next Skills Labs you register for, you will be placed on the bottom of the list. You will only be allowed to participate if that particular Skills Lab is not full. If it is, you have to apply for another Skills Lab.
Check the attendance registration now and then to see whether your contributions have been administered correctly, and notify the coordinator if something seems to be in error.
Obviously, the coordinators are responsible for organizing and accurately administering the course. However, it is your responsibility to make sure that the coordinators can do their job properly: your activities and output are not registered „automatically‟: you are responsible for your plans and output and have to take action yourself. Part of this responsibility is that you have to keep track of your own records in a portfolio. 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 or Deliverables for Skills Labs that you participated in.
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 |
To complete the course Research Workshop & Skills Labs, 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.
For the Skills Labs you must produce some written output (Deliverables and sometimes Preparatory Assignments) and add this output to your portfolio. The coordinator will assess the quality of your work using priorly communicated rubrics and determine whether you passed the Skills Lab. When passed this will be registered in Datanose.
The activities mentioned in Table 1 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.
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 10 credits by attending 10 Research Workshop sessions (if you are an EM-student) or 12 credit points by attending 12 Research Workshops (if you are a GD-student or FPES-student).
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 four hours, you can earn one extra credit points. And for every two hours of attending a scientific lecture you will receive 1 credit point.
You can also deserve extra bonus points by attending, presenting or assisting in organisation of a seminar, symposium or congress. In addition moderating the wiki page for the Research Workshops & Skills Labs or organising alumni presentations can also provide you with bonus points. Besides these activities you may come up with your own ideas – if you have any do not hesitate to contact the course coordinators.
Table 2: Overview of the potential ways to acquire additional points
|
Additional activities
|
Additional points in grade |
|
Attend at least 4 additional Research Workshops during your Master’s phase |
+0.5
|
|
For every 4 extra credits collected (in a period of two years) |
+0.5 (max of +1.0) |
|
(Co-)Write a scientific article for a journal, present a poster or oral presentation on an scientific symposium |
+ 0.5 or higher (max +1.5) |
|
Give additional written feedback on at least 2 research proposals, literature reviews or theses |
+1.0 |
|
Give written feedback on at least 10 oral presentations during your Master’s phase |
+1.0 |
|
Organize a seminar around a self-chosen topic |
+1.0
|
|
Participate in at least 4 additional Skills Labs during your Master’s phase |
+1.0
|
|
Write and publish a small article for a popular science magazine or www. site |
+1.0 |
|
Co-organise a symposium, alumni presentations |
+0.5 or higher (max 2.0) |
|
Moderating an academic Wiki/ website/ blog |
+0.5 or higher (max 1.5) |
|
Any other ideas? Let us know! |
|
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 portfolio.
If you have any additional ideas of interesting additional activities that are not listed, please contact the coordinator to consult with him/her whether this could earn you additional points.
Contact your supervisor to make an appointment for inspection.
In the Research Workshops, the presentations will be assessed using the assessment forms for Research Proposal, Research Report or Internship (see folder Presentation Feedback Forms on Canvas).
Assignments / Deliverables for the Skills Labs will be assessed using rubrics, a special form of assessment which provides not only feedback but also feed forward so that students gain insight in how they can improve on their work (where necessary). Students will receive feedback and feed forward on each submitted Deliverable.
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.
The schedule for this course is published on DataNose.
Registration and administration
First-year students: the procedure will be announced at the start of the master’s programme. All other students: Information about the registration procedures and the registration deadlines can be found at https://student.uva.nl; choose Master’s programme; A-Z list; Course and Exam Registration.
Dr. Thijs de Boer is overall coordinator of the Research Workshop, and Dr. Coyan Tromp is coordinating the Skills Labs. Information about the planned Research Workshops & Skills Labs can be found via https://datanose.nl/#course[78465].
Visit this site regularly to find updates of the schedule.