HW0228 SCIENTIFIC COMMUNICATION II (2.0 AU)

Taken in: AY 20/21 Sem 2
Grade: A-

Assignment 1 – Critique (30%)
Assignment 2 – Report (40%)
Assignment 3 – Oral Presentation (20%)
Class Participation (10%)

Going into the semester, I was dreading this module a lot because it seemed like there was a lot to do & I was not confident in giving a presentation as well. But, my views have changed hahah because I took this module with my friends which makes things easier because we already knew what each of our strengths were & our working styles too. Tutorials started only in week 2 & due to convocation, public holidays & some lessons being converted to Zoom consultations instead, there was probably only ~8 physical tutorial sessions. The content taught is not difficult, it is just that the amount of time spent in this module is not worth just 2 AUs in my opinion hahah. For class participation, our tutor did not tell us how she would grade us for this, but I think attendance is definitely counted but whether participating in class discussions is counted or not, I have no idea. If you don’t want to take the risk then just participate in class whenever possible I guess 😂

For Assignment 1, you will need to read a journal article & write a 500-word critique on the introduction of the article. You’ll be given ~2wks to complete it, but it can be done in less than a day if you are focused so don’t worry about it, just write according to the format your tutor taught you because your tutor will be the one marking your assignment. Comments on assignment 1 will be given however it will not be prompt, as our class only received the comments after week 13 lol probably because our tutor was very busy.
For Assignment 2, you’ll need to form a group of 4-5 members & come up with a research topic, it can be about anything but the experiment/survey has to be conducted without the use of the lab & any money involved will have to be forked out by your group, there is no funding available hahah. After the briefing on assignment 2, our group members individually came up with a few topics on our own & came together to share & see which research idea we were all interested in. It was a really quick process as all of us were interested in the topic & we sprung right into planning the experiment. During the consultations with our tutor, it seemed like the tutor really liked our idea & had no questions whatsoever & allowed us to do whatever we planned & we had a lot of fun 😁 After the experiment, we had to collate our results & draw conclusions from our findings before writing a 3000-word report (again, follow the format your tutor wants). This was the most time-consuming as the submission is during our midterms period + we had to come up with slides & prepare for the presentation (Assignment 3).

We were given 4-5minutes each for the presentation. For our group, we split it such that 1 person presented on the introduction & background of our research topic, 1 person presented on our methodology & 2 people presented on our results + conclusion. It is difficult to present everything in your report in just 20mins tops, so just pick & choose the most interesting content to share will be good enough. Another tip is also to have an audience engagement segment (our tutor did not teach this but I think you’ll all have learnt/experienced that presentations that involve the audience are always more engaging right). For our class, our tutor only required us to be present on the day of our presentation, our group chose to present in week 12 so we need not go to class on week 13 yay ✌🏻

Anyway, have fun with this module & even if you think you won’t do well, it’s fine, it’s just 2 AUs, probably won’t affect your GPA that much! 💪🏻

This review was reposted with the kind permission of Awesome NTU CBC Student. Originally published at https://awesomentucbcstudent.blogspot.com/2021/05/ay2021-y3s2-review.html

Year Taken: AY 18/19, Sem 2

I don’t remember much about this course just had the impression that it was really stressful. There is a critique assignment where you have to use the skills learnt in class to comment on the strengths and weaknesses of the assigned research paper. Oh the tutor said that the research paper for us to critique was chosen as it has many flaws, so if you are unsure if something in the paper is wrong, it probably is. 😬
The group project is the stressful part as we have to conduct a research on a topic that we chose ourselves, write a report that is like a real research paper, and do a presentation on our research findings. x_x

This review was reposted with the kind permission of Hairdryer. Originally published at https://ionhairdryer.blogspot.com/2019/12/ay-201819-ntu-spms-cbc-y3s2.html