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Projects
Guidance for MSc Students:
Taking Projects
Students taking the MSc Structural Molecular Biology, but not individual
Certificates, will need to take a project module that consists of two
individual projects. For both the PPS and TSMB courses, each project takes
the form of a Web based dissertation on an aspect of structural molecular
biology. Each project is worth 30 credits, compared to 60 for each taught
module (i.e. PPS).
Project Choice:-
For PPS you will need to
choose a project from the appropriate list and email in your choice to pps08-tutors@mail.cryst.bbk.ac.uk by June 29th 2009 at the latest.
For TSMB you will need to
choose a project from the appropriate list and email in your choice to tsmb@mail.cryst.bbk.ac.uk by June 29th 2009 at the latest.
PPS students should email their project choice to pps08-tutors@mail.cryst.bbk.ac.uk
TSMB students should email their choice to tsmb@mail.cryst.bbk.ac.uk
TSMB students who have already taken PPS projects should note that their
projects should not heavily overlap. Please pick a different subject
area!
Submission
All students, studying both courses, will need to
submit their projects by October 5, 2009.
The project should be zipped
or compressed into a single file and
emailed to Dave
Houldershaw. Dave will email the course mailing lists with more
details towards the end of your project work.
Important! - Plagiarism
Students are reminded that plagiarism, or presenting others' work as if
it is your
own, is illegal. See
Birkbeck's definition of plagiarism. We will be running all your
projects through
the JISC Plagiarism Detection Service
- you have been warned! We have had to take sanctions against more than one student!
Assessment
We are expecting you to produce a Web review (written in HTML)
concentrating on the science behind your chosen area of structural
biology. TSMB students should expect to devote a high proportion of
their project to a discussion of experimental methods. Some of the
projects (more often in TSMB) will require you to use bioinformatics
tools on the web, and all require using a combination of web resources
and the scientific literature to obtain information. You should be
aware that much of the literature is available online and some full
text articles will be available free.
Although we expect you to use the unique facilities of the Internet
for presenting images and linking to external sites, we do not
expect you to become Web programmers - therefore Perl, Java and
stylesheets are not required to get high marks, although you will not
be penalised for using them.
In all projects, the projects will be marked according to the
following criteria:
- Scientific content: 80%
- Presentation, including layout, use of English and of the WWW:
20%
Marks will be awarded as follows:
- 70% or more: Standard required for Distinction
- 60% or more: Standard required for Merit
- 50% or more: Standard required to Pass
- less than 50%: Fail
Previous Projects
The best way to find out what we are looking for in a project is to
look at some previous examples. Please let us know when you sumbit if
you are not willing for your project to be shown to future students
All projects mounted anywhere on the Birkbeck hypertree have at
least reached the standard required to pass.
However, the following projects have been judged to have reached a
particularly high standard:
PPS
TSMB
If in doubt about the choice of a project or any other aspect of the
project procedure, PPS students should email
pps08-tutors@mail.cryst.bbk.ac.uk;
TSMB students should consult Nick or Clare by emailing tsmb@mail.cryst.bbk.ac.uk. There will also be a couple of MUD sessions specifically to discuss
projects. All PPS students are strongly encouraged to attend one of these, and TSMB students are invited to attend for a "refresher".
Clare Sansom, Nick Keep and Jim Pitts: June 2009