Department of Chemistry course timetable

Three workshops on aspects of writing for which the students would be expected to submit two pieces of written work that would be assessed by the instructor. The aim of the workshops will be for the students to improve both their scientific writing skills as well as their general academic literacy skills.

The specific areas of writing to be covered are:

• Literature Review
• Results section

Session One

Introduction to Academic Writing at PG Level

The aim of this session would be to prepare the foundations, as it were, covering the expectations of writing at PG level and covering some strategies for achieving what is the University’s only criterion when it comes to writing, namely that it is ‘clearly written’, before looking at writing in Chemistry specifically, and closing by looking at the two areas which will be the focus of the next two sessions – Literature Reviews and Results Sections.

Why writing at PG level is so hard

• Understanding the Writing Process
• How English works: Achieving Clarity
• Rhetorical Templates
• Paragraphs
• Editing: from the Macro to the Micro
• Discipline-specific Considerations
• Literature Review & Results Section

Sessions Two & Three

• Literature Reviews
• Results Sections

For both of these sessions the students who be expected to have submitted work a week beforehand – this could be either individually or as a group. Each piece of work should be ca. 5 pages in length.

The two areas, Literature Reviews and Results Sections, will have been introduced in the introductory section. Students will also be able to access additional support materials when preparing their written work for submission before the workshop.

Each workshop would then essentially be based on the submissions of the group – looking and the strengths and weaknesses of a selection of them, encouraging discussion amongst the group as to what would need to be done in order to strengthen the submissions. This would also include a range of hands-on exercises that the students would do during the workshop, either individually or in a small group.

Unconscious Bias refers to the biases we hold that are not in our conscious control. Research shows that these biases can adversely affect key decisions in the workplace. The session will enable you to work towards reducing the effects of unconscious bias for yourself and within your organisation. Using examples that you will be able to relate to, we help you to explore the link between implicit bias and the impact on the organisation. The overall aim of the session is to provide participants with an understanding of the nature of Unconscious Bias and how it impacts on individual and group attitudes, behaviours and decision-making processes.

An 8 week Improv Theatre Course Improv teaches excellent skills for scientists! It will boost your confidence, teach you to be spontaneous and overcome the fear of failure. It will work wonders for your public speaking, communication and presentation skills.

The first half of this session will cover an overview of Raytracing versus 3D Modelling, an introduction to the free Raytracing programme Povray, running Povray (command line options). Making and manipulating simple shapes, camera tricks (depth of field, angle of view) and using other software to generate Povray input (e.g. Jmol)

The second half of the session is an introduction to 3D modelling and animation using the open source programme Blender. This will cover the installation and customisation of the Blender interface for use with chemical models, how to import chemical structures from Jmol and the protein data base (PDB), the basics of 3D modelling, and an introduction to Key-frame animation.

No previous experience with either 3D modelling or animation is required.

You will receive a Zoom link when you register for this course

An 8 week Improv Theatre Course Improv teaches excellent skills for scientists! It will boost your confidence, teach you to be spontaneous and overcome the fear of failure. It will work wonders for your public speaking, communication and presentation skills.

This session introduces three citation databases: Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed (if relevant to the audience). These databases index all the scientific literature that is published. When used efficiently, and in combination, they are a powerful tool for finding the research publications you need - so you don't miss out on anything. They will be compared and contrasted with each other, and with using Google or Google Scholar, to find citations.

You will be guided on how to search these databases effectively; the session includes a hands-on element where you can practice. The session covers how to set up email alerts for searches and citations, so you can keep up with research published in your field. It also covers how to find metrics and altmetrics available for a journal, journal article, or author, so you can evaluate the quality of a piece of research, or a particular author's research before collaborating with them, for example. It will cover how to export the citations you find to your reference manager so you can easily create a bibliography and/or cite publications in your own work.

The session will be most suitable for those who are new to searching citation databases or would like a refresher.

Please register via Zoom

Communicating your research in an engaging and easily understood manner is important for any audience and all the more so for non-academic audiences. This workshop will take you through the art and science of engaging communication, and outline the opportunities and support within the University for public engagement.

An 8 week Improv Theatre Course Improv teaches excellent skills for scientists! It will boost your confidence, teach you to be spontaneous and overcome the fear of failure. It will work wonders for your public speaking, communication and presentation skills.

A thorough awareness of issues relating to research ethics and research integrity are essential to producing excellent research. This session will provide an introduction to the ethical responsibilities of researchers at the University, publication ethics and research integrity. It will be interactive, using case studies to better understand key ethical issues and challenges in all areas.

This compulsory training will available online via moodle.

We are offering drop in sessions for you to discuss queries with the course trainer. Please book one 15 minute session. You will be asked to confirm your attendance one day before, if you do not confirm your slot will be allocated to someone else.

An 8 week Improv Theatre Course Improv teaches excellent skills for scientists! It will boost your confidence, teach you to be spontaneous and overcome the fear of failure. It will work wonders for your public speaking, communication and presentation skills.