6 EC
Semester 2, period 4
5264ENMT6Y
In order to understand (biogeo)chemical and physical patterns and processes at the earth surface quantitative knowledge of soil and water properties is essential. Without quantitative data it is impossible to assess the impact of environmental changes on the functions of ecosystems and interpretation of environmental data requires profound knowledge of the methodologies which were applied.
In this course you can choose your own focus on measuring techniques in the fields of environmental chemistry, soil (biogeo)chemistry, geomorphology or soil physics. You can combine or choose for either:
The physical-chemical laboratories of IBED are very well equipped and the research groups involved have an excellent expertise in all of the offered disciplines.
Protocols
Hand-outs
Scientific articles
Mainly practical work in the laboratory or/and in the field combined with some literature study
|
Activity |
Number of hours |
|
Lectures |
4 |
|
Excursion |
8 |
|
Presentation |
3 |
|
Practical work and self-study |
153 |
| Total
|
168 |
Requirements of the programme concerning attendance (OER-B):
Additional requirements for this course:
Students are expected to spend 50% of the week on practical work, presentation preparation and report writing during the entire period of 8 weeks. Group members of the subgroups formed discuss their detailed time-schedule with their daily supervisor during the first week, with updates latest one week in advance. Absence can be discussed but should be limited to two work-days throughout the 8 week period. The students are obliged to attend the lectures and final group presentations. Part of the final grade is based on scientific work attitude during the whole course.
| Item and weight | Details |
|
Final grade |
The final mark of the course is based on the results of both the written report and group oral presentation on the group’s project. Formative assessments during the course will involve feedback on the research proposal in the second week (check for clarity on research hypothesis and expected outcomes, and relevant background literature), and feedback on the project introduction and outline in the third week (i.e. setting up the written report). The oral presentation will take place on Friday March 29, 2019, 13:00-15:00, in the SP building (G3.05). The supervisors of all EMT projects form a panel to check for quality according to a standardized assessment form (available in Canvas), and advise the daily supervisor for a grade and feedback to each student. The daily supervisor will provide the final grade for the presentation. The final draft version of the written report must be handed in on Monday in the last week to allow for 1 round of feedback from the daily supervisor. During the oral presentation, some feedback from the panel on Friday in the last week may be of relevance for fine-tuning the final report. As such, the final version of the written report must be handed in latest by Monday 23:59 April 1st, 2019. The written report is scored by the daily supervisor according to a standardized assessment form (available in Canvas), and reviewed by the coordinator to form a final grade. The scientific attitude is scored by the daily supervisor and includes how the student has been: setting up experiments (10%), dividing tasks (10%), committing to the project (20%), collecting data (20%), dealing with feedback (20%), analyzing data (20%).
Report detailing the project findings, including introduction to the topic, technical description of the measurement techniques applied, results, discussion of results in larger environmental relevance.
Group presentation of the key aspects of the project
Both the presentation and the report are graded based on standardized forms, as will be available on canvas.
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
| Week | Component |
| 1 | course introduction + first discussion with daily supervisor |
| 2 | 2 days experimental work + field excursion |
| 3 | 2 days experimental work + field excursion |
| 4 | 2.5 days experimental work + lecture |
| 5 | 3 days experimental work |
| 6 | 2.5 days experimental work |
| 7 | 1.5 days experimental work/report writing |
| 8 | 2 days presentation preparation/report writing |
The schedule for this course is published on DataNose.
This course is a practical one, where groups of 2 or 3 students work in the field and/or lab on small projects in the area of environmental chemistry or earth sciences. Students may choose a subject from different topics offered and based on their BSc background. Students will be supervised in the initial planning and set-up of experiments, and will be trained to perform experiments and data analysis independently. Typical methodologies required in the field or the lab will be employed in order to measure certain parameters so that students get acquainted with analytical chemical or field observation methodologies.
Because of the limited capacity of laboratory space and daily supervision, and depending on the subjects chosen by the students a maximum of 21 students can register each year. Registration will be on a priority for certain MSc tracks.
BSc Chemistry, BSc Earth Sciences
Practical: 21 maximum (priority to certain MSc tracks); Announcements: Canvas. A certain/special ensurance can be required when field work is involved.