Undergraduate Course: Research Methods in Physical Geography (RMPG) (EASC09053)
Course Outline
| School | School of Geosciences |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 9 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course is made of two components related to research methods. In semester one, lectures and practicals will provide training in the use of computer programming to analyse and visualise data using physical geography examples. In parallel, a series of workshops throughout the year will develop students' ability in generation and testing of scientific hypotheses. The course will culminate with the production of a research proposal in which students will describe the scientific motivation for their dissertation project, the main goal of the project and the methods they will use to achieve this goal. |
| Course description |
Programming and Data Analysis: Semester 1:
Week 1 (Friday): Basic Programming
Week 2 (Friday): Data Visualisation
Week 3 (Friday): Probability and sampling
Week 4: No Practical/Instructor unavailable (do not meet)
Week 5 (Friday): Correlation and Regression
Week 6 (Friday): Online Programming Test
Week 7 (Friday): Time Series analysis
Week 8 (Friday): Spatial data analysis
Week 9 (Friday): Processing geospatial in different formats
Week 10 (Friday): Help session for programming project
Workshops for Research Design*: all year long. The milestones are:
Sem1 Wk2 (Friday): Introduction to research design workshops
Sem 1 Wk9: discussion of preliminary ideas in small groups
Sem 1 Wk11: 4th Year GPG dissertation conference
Sem 2 ILW: Mock peer-review interview based on assessment of students' proposals
*Note: specific dates and times for the workshops will be arranged via e-mail, possibly via a doodle-poll.
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Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Acquire skills in computer programming
- Develop an understanding of a range of data processing/analysis techniques and the ability to determine suitable data analysis approaches to test hypotheses
- Define a research question or a scientific hypothesis to test
- Search for literature and gather information on the topic
- Define a rigorous strategy for data collection and analysis
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Reading List
Statistics and Data Analysis in Geology (Davis, JC. Wiley)
Geostatistics explained: an introductory guide for earth scientists (McKillup, S and Dyar, MD. Cambridge)
Walliman, N (2004) "Your undergraduate dissertation". London: Sage
Kneale, P (2011) "Study Skills for Geography, Earth and Environmental Science Students". Hodder Education. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Additional Class Delivery Information |
The lab practical portion of the course will take place over 8 weeks in the Fall term. The practicals will cover the programming and data analysis component of the course. In these practicals, the staff member will give a brief overview of the current practical and its learning outcomes, and the students will then carry out the practical exercises in a hands-on fashion with a staff member and demonstrator standing by. |
| Keywords | Programming,Data Analysis,Research Design,Dissertation |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Daniel Goldberg
Tel: (0131 6)50 2561
Email: Dan.Goldberg@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Katerina Sykioti
Tel: (0131 6)50 5430
Email: Katerina.Sykioti@ed.ac.uk |
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