The aim of this assessment is to develop your skills in deriving logical and testable hypotheses from numerous competing models (explanations) that account for a quantified observation. This assignment comprises eight short-answer questions designed to test your understanding of the scientific framework and to engage logical thought processes.

Assessment criteria will include evidence of understanding and correct application of different types of logical thought, with a particular emphasis on falsification theory used to test scientific hypotheses. Clear, unambiguous writing skills (e.g. plain English with good grammar) will be necessary.

The assessment item will be marked against the following criteria:
1. Correctly applying logical thought to problem-solve.
2. Correct use of falsification theory.
3. Correct derivation of all elements of the scientific framework (observations, models, and hypotheses).
4. Use of unambiguous writing skills (e.g. plain English with good grammar).

The aim of these four online practicals is to apply your knowledge from the lectures and acquire skills in sampling design, which will be useful in the residential school.

You are required to complete a series of four online practicals:

• Practical 1: Sampling unit size
• Practical 2: Replication
• Practical 3: Clumped versus Random Distribution
• Practical 4: Stratified sampling

Each practical requires not only doing the practical work (i.e. acquiring the data), but also providing, for assessment, a short written summary of what was learned.

Assessment for this task is based on the following:

• Practical skills: Following methods provided and acquiring data correctly;
• Mathematical skills: Following instructions to calculate summary statistics from acquired data;
• Communication skills: Writing a summary report of each practical, which demonstrates a sounds understanding of the theoretical principles taught in each practical.

The aim of this task is to improve your scientific written and oral communication skills and develop your capacity to consider and satisfactorily answer questions relating to the logic, design, sampling, analysis, and reporting of a research project.

This assessment task (and the final assessment task of a written report) is based on your residential school project. Early in term, you will choose a research project from a prescribed list, and will then form a team with other students who choose the same project. At the end of the residential school, your team will be required to prepare and deliver an oral defence of its research project, including PowerPoint slides. Following the presentation, team members will need to answer audience questions regarding decisions behind the design, analysis and interpretation of the results of your experiment, as well as general questions relating to the research topic. Consequently, attendance at the residential school is mandatory.

Details of the oral presentation:

• To be presented on the final day of the residential school;
• 8-10 PowerPoint slides;
• Maximum of 10 minutes plus 5 minutes question time;
• Presented as a group;
• A template for your slide presentation will be provided on Moodle.
  

Assessment for this task will be based on:

• Content: Are the slides clearly presented, logically ordered, well organised and pleasing to the eye? Do the slides present all the relevant information needed to understand the research project, including the reason(s) for doing the experiment, and any conclusions?
• Style: Do the speakers present the research clearly and confidently, demonstrating a sound grasp of the hypothesis and reasoning behind the methodology? Do the speakers present the research at an appropriate pace and keep on time? Do the speakers make good eye contact and engage with the audience?
• Questions: Are questions and criticisms of the research project adequately considered and answered? Are the speakers able to place their results in a broader context to explain their significance? Do the speakers recognise possible improvements to the experimental design, including new ideas that have emerged while doing the research?
  

The aim of this task is to improve your scientific written communication skills and develop your skills in presenting the logic, design, sampling, analysis, and results of a research project. The task will encourage you to research a topic in more detail and hone your writing skills to be more concise.

The practical assessment will be a written report based on the project completed during the residential school. As such attendance at the Residential School is mandatory.  The report will be:

• Prepared in the format of a scientific journal article (a template will be provided);
• Prepared as a group (each student in that group receives the same mark for their report);
• Maximum of 2500 words;
• Minimum of 10 references to support statements made in the report.

The written report will constitute 80 % of your mark for this assessment item, with the remaining 20 % based on an online Self-and-Peer Assessment (SPA) task designed to indicate your individual performance and contribution to your residential school project, as well as that of each of your project team members.  A link to the SPA will be emailed to you near the end of term, and will be based on a Likert classification allowing you to rank your level of agreement with the questions asked.

The assessment will be marked on specific criteria relating to:

• Abstract (clear, concise summary of context, hypothesis, results and conclusions);
• Introduction (relevant context provided, starting with a broad focus of observations and models and narrowing to a clear, well-articulated hypothesis for a manipulative experiment);
• Methods (adequate description and justification of methods used so experiment could be repeated);
• Results (concise description of results, ordered logically and presented in graphs/tables, as well as basic statistical analyses);
• Discussion (logical structure that discusses the key results and their meaning before placing results in a broader context and identifying biases/improvements/further fields of study etc);
• References (cited appropriately throughout text, 10 minimum, no web pages unless data repository-type);
• Spelling & grammar (clear and succinct use of English);
• Word count (keeping to guidelines in each section).