AP0700 - Graduate Science Research Methods

The module will be delivered each week by a combination of guidance lectures coupled with workshop sessions using examples relating to the lecture material. In the workshops, you will practice the skills learnt in lectures with the benefit of immediate feedback and / or additional guidance from the tutor using additional exercises and examples - these will form the basis for 2 hour workshops. The workshops will allow you to work at your own pace, combining individual and group work to ensure your confidence with all of the material and exercises in an engaging and supportive environment.

You will be given lecture materials, workshop exercises and directed reading to inform both self-directed learning and in-class activities. You will develop skills in working independently and in small groups whilst under the guidance of a lecturer, ensuring on a week-by-week basis your confidence with each set of new skills and methods. The module blackboard site will be utilised as a repository for lecture and workshop materials allowing you to practice techniques for the statistics exam.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

Knowledge & Understanding: You will
1.Understand the hypothetico-deductive process and the processes contributing to its presentation in a variety of publication types. (Component 2)
2.Know the desirable properties of research design and power and be able to critically assess literature in this context. (Component 2)
Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
3.Find, appraise and disseminate scientific information. (Component 2)
4.Select, apply, and assess the output from statistical methods of data analysis, including appropriate presentation of data. (component 01 )
5.Construct an experimental design appropriate to a given system to create the appropriate quantitative or qualitative design matrix. (component 01)

Component 01 – statistics exam. An ICT based exam will assess your understanding and ability to choose and perform appropriatestatistical tests, methods and the ability to display and summarise the information appropriately.
(MLO’s 4, 5)
Component 02- assignment (2000 words). You will compose a critical evaluation of a discipline specific research topic of contemporary interest and you will also translate your academic findings into a concise summary that is accessible to a lay reader ((MLO’s 1, 2 and 3)

Formative opportunities will be provided in workshops, utilising small group and individual work guided by a tutor to give immediate verbal feedback

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Graduate Science Research methods will allow you to develop skills in experimental design and data handling including commonly used statistical tests and methods. You will use these skills as part of the ability to critically appraise other literature where you will follow a science story in the popular press at the time back to its origins in the primary literature. During this process you will develop and refine skills in systematic searching of literature as well as developing your own scientific writing style in both lay summary and academic critical writing. You will refine these skills alongside your other studies, being able to deploy them appropriately and with on-going support, providing you with a rich foundation for the rest of your studies at Masters level.