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School of Earth and Environment FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT. SOEE 3030/5400 Environmental Research Project Dr Steven Dobbie, s.dobbie@see.leeds.ac.uk Module Leader (Always put 3030 or 5400 in email subject for filtering). Module Handbook. School of Earth and Environment FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT.
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School of Earth and Environment FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT SOEE 3030/5400 Environmental Research ProjectDr Steven Dobbie, s.dobbie@see.leeds.ac.ukModule Leader(Always put 3030 or 5400 in email subject for filtering)
Module Handbook School of Earth and Environment FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT Outline of today’s session • Overview of the dissertation module • Choosing a dissertation topic and supervisor • Your role in the research • Your supervisor’s role • Concept note • Next steps
School of Earth and Environment FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT Please note… • This is probably the MOST IMPORTANT piece of work you will do for your degree and it has LOADS of potential… • Develop skills • Explore new areas of interest • Make new contacts • Visit new areas • Explore employment opportunities • Talk to interesting people • Get to know your supervisors • It can make a difference to your degree classification
Module Handbook School of Earth and Environment FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT Dissertation types: • BSc 40 credit dissertation 12,000 words • MEnv 45 credit dissertation 14,000 words 50-60 pages double spaced
Module Handbook School of Earth and Environment FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT What is involved: • SOEE 3030 • Poster presentation (formative) • Progress report (formative) • Dissertation report (100%) • SOEE 5400 • Poster presentation (formative) • Progress report (formative) • Dissertation report (90%) • Public Understanding of Science Essay (2000 words) (10%) Note: you must complete the formative and summative components to pass the module
Module Handbook School of Earth and Environment FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH!!
Module Handbook School of Earth and Environment FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT Definition of Research • Original investigation undertaken in order to gain knowledge and understanding. Academic Research • Exploring • Explaining • Developing • Understanding • Improving • Transforming • Recommending • Contributions: • Empirical • Theoretical • Methodological
School of Earth and Environment FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT A dissertation IS • Report on an original research topic • Typically including theoretical, empirical (derived from observation) and methodological aspects A dissertation IS NOT • A literature review • Repetition of previous research or reports Note: Dissertations should be in the theme of your programme
Typical dissertation • Abstract (250-350 words) • Introduction, Aim and Objectives – (~750 words) • Background Literature (~3000 words & 2-3 figures) • Methodology (~1500 words ±figures / location maps) • Results & Analysis (~1500 words & figures) • Discussion (~3000 words & maybe 1 figure / schema) • Conclusions (250-350 words) • Figure/table captions and in-text refs (~1500 words) • Reference list (unlimited) • Appendices (unlimited words & figures – use as required)
School of Earth and Environment FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT Exploring the Perceptions of Car Enthusiasts on a Driverless and Shared Car Future The aim of this study was to investigate affective aspects of car ownership and how it may impact the adoption of SAVs in the future. This study focuses on the pleasure element of Jordan (2000)’s hierarchy of consumer needs. That is, the third characteristic that a product should have in order for it to be ‘consumed’ by consumers. Framing pleasure motives in terms of modelling behaviour intent, the affective elements from Osswald et al (2012)’s CTAM were adopted. Questionnaires were undertaken to survey opinions
School of Earth and Environment FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT Exploring the Perceptions of Car Enthusiasts on a Driverless and Shared Car Future • 1. Anxiety • Participants were encouraged to share their apprehensions about SAVs based on the vignette. ‘Anxieties’ noted from participants are discussed in this section.
School of Earth and Environment FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT Exploring the Perceptions of Car Enthusiasts on a Driverless and Shared Car Future • 1. Anxiety • Participants were encouraged to share their apprehensions about SAVs based on the vignette. ‘Anxieties’ noted from participants are discussed in this section. • 2. Self-Efficacy • Understanding why car enthusiasts own and drive the cars that they have was an important area to explore, since it reveals many insights about the role of the car in their own life.
School of Earth and Environment FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT Exploring the Perceptions of Car Enthusiasts on a Driverless and Shared Car Future • 1. Anxiety • Participants were encouraged to share their apprehensions about SAVs based on the vignette. ‘Anxieties’ noted from participants are discussed in this section. • 2. Self-Efficacy • Understanding why car enthusiasts own and drive the cars that they have was an important area to explore, since it reveals many insights about the role of the car in their own life. • 3. Social Influence • The social influence of car ownership is far reaching with a lot of different areas that can be discussed. The important social aspects of classic car ownership and driving are discussed.
Climate Impacts Example What am I interested in? • Crop failures, climate change and South India.
Background Research – literature review • What crops are grown in South India? • What crop are you focusing on? • How is a crop failure defined? • Present literature about historical failures and what caused them. • Discuss what is know about future climate of South India and predictions of crop failures. • Present info about the new HAPPI climate data, its aims etc and applicability to this work.
How can I contribute? • Use a new climate dataset that is ideal for testing rare extreme events. • Analysis of past and future modelling and historical climate data. • Estimate if crop failures are going to be more or less frequent in a climatically warmer world using the new data.
Aims/objectives/Hyp Research aim: Will wheat crop failures increase in South India in a 1.5C warmer world? Research objectives: • To identify or determine thresholds linking historical South Indian wheat crop failures to historical climate extremes. • Use these thresholds to estimate the future frequency of South Indian wheat crop failures for a 1.5C warmer world. Hypothesis: “The frequency of South Indian wheat crop failures will increase in a 1.5C warmer world compared to current climate”
Research design and choice of method(s) Research design: • Quantitative / model data Research methods: • Use HAPPI climate data. • Analyse correlations between crop outputs and temperature, precipitation, radiation extremes. • Define thresholds for failures use with future climate
Data collection • HAPPI climate data website download • Historical records of crop yields Data analysis • Dealing with NetCDF files • Excel/Unix/Fortran/Python/Matlab • Statistical analysis (e.g. SPSS/R)
School of Earth and Environment FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT Examples of dissertations submitted this year The extent to which rally driving events degrades forest ecosystems Investigating the longevity of reducing and alkalinity producing systems to remediate mine drainage Corporate sustainability in the automotive industry An investigation into improving the effectiveness of environmental management systems within the oil and gas industry Sustainability in the fast fashion industry: investigating the interrelationship between CSR and consumers
School of Earth and Environment FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT Examples of dissertations submitted this year Individual and situational factors that affect the glitter purchasing behavior of students at the University of Leeds. Exploring the economic impacts of increased cycling: a case study on commuting cyclists in London The impacts of climate on coffee production in Indonesia A socio-technical evaluation of the Danish energy transition for 2050 A social perspective of illicit cultivation
School of Earth and Environment FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT Supervisors It is your responsibility to keep in contact and instigate meetings with your supervisor you are expected to meet with your supervisor aminimum of five times Prior to module starting/Semester 1 • To review aims and objectives of the project and discuss progress already made • To review data collections, poster preparation, progress report preparation Semester 2 • To discuss how to analyse your data and the progress report; • To discuss the conclusions of your dissertation • To discuss the structure of your dissertation.
School of Earth and Environment FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT What can you expect from your supervisor? A supervisor will • discuss your topic/feasibility • discuss your progress • comment on your research proposal • help formulate appropriate methodology • point you in the direction of literature • discuss arrangements for use of equipment / labs • comment on verbal report of your findings • skim read a draft of report or dissertation if provided in reasonable timescale for comment • A supervisor WILL NOT • Provide all literature • Detail exact nature of research design • Edit a dissertation draft
School of Earth and Environment FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT • Time management – key issues • Unrealistic about the size of the piece of work – can’t leave until after Christmas. • Not realising how long collecting data will take • relying on an external organisation can be slow • equipment availability • Not realising how long data analysis will take • e.g. lab work takes time and involves others • Staff not always immediately available • they have planned their time for their own work • Unrealistic about time for producing dissertation • computer problems • Time saver • Keep a list of references as you work through the project
Module Handbook School of Earth and Environment FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT NEXT STEPS!!
Module Handbook School of Earth and Environment FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT • Complete a Concept note and submit it to Turnitin by April 11th 2019
Module Handbook School of Earth and Environment FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT Key Dates: - Concept note Due April 11th - Supervisors will be assigned and listed on Minerva
Module Handbook School of Earth and Environment FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
Module Handbook School of Earth and Environment FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT
Module Handbook School of Earth and Environment FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT Risk assessment approval Also light touch or in-depth versions • Pre-assessment - Light touch • Approval is immediate if you are working only at the University and at home. It will tell you if a full risk assessment is needed. • Link for the pre-assessment will appear soon by the H&S team. • Full risk assessment – in depth • If pre-assessment says it’s needed then complete the form and submit for approval to Stacey Galloway (S.L.Galloway@leeds.ac.uk)
School of Earth and Environment FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT Any Questions?