Aims

To provide students with skills in research necessary for their project. Specifically:
To provide skills in scientific information retrieval and curation from a variety of sources.
To provide skills in attributing source materials and constructing accurate references in the RSC style, employing good academic practice and referencing principles to avoid plagiarism.
To provide skills in searching for chemical, biochemical and biophysical data from databases.
To develop key literacy and communication skills.
To research the literature and produce a short presentation on a topic related to their project.
To use spectroscopic data for structure determination of organic molecules.
To recognize practical constraints in the design of synthetic procedures.
To develop skills in key experimental techniques, including chromatography.

Outline Of Syllabus

Lectures and Workshops will cover the following topics:
Research seminars: a selection of invited speakers presenting current research topics Scientific literature: searching, curating and citing the scientific literature.
Scientific databases: Reaxys, SciFinder-n, Scopus, Web of Science, EMBASE and others relevant to the research task.
Scientific writing skills.
Preparation of visual material for presentation and reports, including data and molecular structures. Presentation skills.
Analytical techniques (1H, 13C NMR, MS, IR, chromatography).
Structure determination using spectroscopic data
A dry laboratory course on experimental techniques and multi-step syntheses.
A schedule of the delivery of the different workshops will be provided at the beginning of the course on Canvas.
Up to date details on times and locations of the research seminars can be found on http://www.ncl.ac.uk/chemistry/about/seminars/

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Lectures provide necessary information and tools for the academic preparation with workshops consolidating the work through practical applications of taught material. Meetings between the student and project supervisor will provide guidance for the preparation of the presentation. Independent study for literature research and background reading are required for the completion of all assessed components. Students will develop and demonstrate their digital and information literacies at postgraduate level, in readiness for further research or future employment. They will learn strategies for finding, evaluating and managing information in line with their current needs, and how they might adapt these to future research tasks.
The extensive set of REAXYS practise exercises illustrates all of the main database features and search strategies and enables students to gain competence at their own pace

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The project presentation will provide the students with a detailed knowledge of their CHY8002 project or a related topic and an opportunity to develop their presentation skills.
The Research Seminar Report contextualises the wider research activity in a critical fashion.
The Lab Report test the student’s ability to accurately record data and observations and to make reasoned structural assignments based on data.
Formative assessments are provided to reinforce taught material and give an opportunity for practice and feedback
Coursework assessments cover research and presentation skills (project presentation and Database exercises) and theoretical laboratory (laboratory report).
Each component assesses a different area of skills and knowledge so different assessments are required