Degree Project
Code: 101037 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year | Semester |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2500254 Geology | OB | 4 | 0 |
Contact
- Name:
- Maria Mercč Corbella Cordomí
- Email:
- Merce.Corbella@uab.cat
Use of Languages
- Principal working language:
- catalan (cat)
- Some groups entirely in English:
- No
- Some groups entirely in Catalan:
- Yes
- Some groups entirely in Spanish:
- No
Prerequisites
In accordance with the academic regulations of the UAB (Student Residency Scheme), in order to enrol in the Final Year Project it is necessary to have passed at least two thirds of the total credits of the study plan. In the case of the Geology Degree, 160 ECTS must have been passed.
Anyway, it is very important to have passed most of the subjects of 2nd and 3rd years of the Geology degree in order to carry out a complete project.
Objectives and Contextualisation
This subject has a transversal and global character, so it is better to enrol during the course of the degree completion. The thesis has to involve a student load of 150 hours (if working on it for 5 months - from September to January - it is about 8 hours / week, if working on it for 7 months - from November to June - it is about 5h / week).
The objective of the degree thesis is to carry out an individual and short research (6 ECTS), of experimental or theoretical nature, predominantly autonomously, on a topic of Geology proposed by the teaching staff or by the students.
With this work the students must demonstrate that they have reached the necessary maturity and knowledge of Geology, and that they know how to transmit it, in order to obtain the degree in Geology.
The thesis must be presented as a written report and an oral presentation.
Competences
- Evaluate moral and ethical problems in research and acknowledge the need to follow professional codes of conduct.
- Learn and apply the knowledge acquired, and use it to solve problems.
- Obtain information from texts written in other languages.
- Recognise theories, paradigms, concepts and principles in the field of geology and use them in different areas of application, whether scientific or technical.
- Show an interest in quality and incorporate it into practice.
- Show initiative and adapt to problems and new situations.
- Suitably transmit information, verbally, graphically and in writing, using modern information and communication technologies.
- Synthesise and analyse information critically.
- Work independently.
Learning Outcomes
- Apply theories and principles of geology to a particular research project.
- Comply with ethical principles in one's own research project.
- Learn and apply the knowledge acquired, and use it to solve problems.
- Obtain information from texts written in other languages.
- Show an interest in quality and incorporate it into practice.
- Show initiative and adapt to problems and new situations.
- Suitably transmit information, verbally, graphically and in writing, using modern information and communication technologies.
- Synthesise and analyse information critically.
- Work independently.
Content
Assignment of TFG topics:
The subject of the thesis degree can arise from proposals from either teachers or students, before or during the month of September. The teachers of the Department of Geology will be asked to present proposals of topics in which they are willing to act as tutors, expecting that a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 10 topics will be proposed from each area of Geology.
To formally propose a topic, students or teachers, a specific form must be filled out ( "Proposal of topics for TFG of Geology"), which will be facilitated by the coordinator of the subject, and must be sent, previously signed, to the coordinator. In this form, it must be specified in which call the work will be presented (February or June; there is no call for September). In the proposal of a subject it is important to write down a provisional title, the field of Geology in which the work is framed, a summary of the work to be done and some of the expected results. When the student proposes the subject, he / she must agree with a teacher to tutor the work and communicate it to the coordinator of the subject by presenting the Proposal sheet signed by both, before October. In case the student does not find a tutor for the subject proposed, the coordinator will assign him/her one of the topics proposed by the teachers.
The tutor of a TFG:
He or she is in charge of tracking a TFG during the course since the subject is agreed with the student until it is presented orally. The tutor has to organize a minimum of two sessions with the student, according to the Guia-TFG of the Facultat de Ciències.
For the follow-up of a TFG, the tutor will be added the corresponding teaching hours in his/her Teaching plan. Each teacher should not be a tutor of more than two jobs per course if there is another teacher in the same field without tutoring jobs.
In order to ensure the student's follow-up throughout the process, the tutor must provide the coordinator with the assessment sheets according to the established schedule. Some monitoring and assessment sheets will be available for the tutors in order to unify the criteria and aspects to be taken into account.
The commissions that qualify the TFG:
The commissions will consist of 3 teachers of the Geology Degree who will assess the quality of the work done, the oral presentation and the answer to the questions posed. The qualification will follow the rubrics facilitated by the coordinator of the subject.
Methodology
The student will carry out a personal and original research work guided by a tutor. The work can be done individually or in pairs. The joint work must have the amplitude necessary to comply with the regulations of the subject. Upon completion of the research work, the student will write a report and prepare an oral presentation of the thesis to defend before a committee.
When choosing the subject, the student must also decide whether to present the work in February or June, bearing in mind that it can only be presented once per call or course year.
Most of the student's workload will be as autonomous work for information search, research, writing the report and preparing the oral presentation.
The tutor and the student must shcedule a minimum of two meetings or tutorials throughout the course year.
The students of the double degree of CC.AA. + Geology will have to present a TFG for each of the two degrees, even if it deals with the same subject. In this case the work will have two tutors (one of each degree) and both the report and the oral presentation of the TFG must comply with the provisions of this Guide.
The coordinator of the TFG will inform the students about specific issues through the Virtual Campus.
Written memory:
The memory must be written in a maximum of 20 pages (in case of an individual thesis; 30 pages in a pairs thesis). If necessary, annexes may be attached to the report (non-essential data tables, maps, glossary, etc.). The non-original (other author's work) contents must be clearly referenced in the text. It can be written in Catalan, Spanish or English.
The written report must consist of at least the following parts:
0-Title, author and tutor of the work, date, "Department of Geology" and the official UAB logo.
1-Index
2-Summaries in Catalan, Spanish and English
3-Introduction (approach to the problem, previous knowledge of the subject, objective(s) of the thesis).
4-Materials and methodology (sample material collected; methods used to solve the problem). It must be clearly specified which activities of the study have been carried out by the student.
5-Results obtained (description of the data obtained, clearly differentiated from previous studies or TFG's data; no data interpretation in this section).
6-Interpretation or discussion of the results (do not repeat the descriptions, only interpretations, assessments, comparisons, limitations, etc.).
7-Conclusions (summary of results and interpretation).
8-References (oly bibliography and websites cited in the text; should be standardized and presented according to the usual criteria).
9-Annexes (if necessary, but the main data or images must be included in the main body of the memory).
Oral presentation:
The presentation of the Degree Thesis or End of Degree Project constitutes the final oral examination of the subject, which will be held before a commettee constituted by 3 teachers in open session to all students. Those attending the event must take into account the relevance and formality of the session.
The oral presentation of the theisis can be performed in Catalan, Spanish or English and will be accompanied by digital support. The work will be presented in a maximum time of 10 minutes (15 minutes, if the work is in pairs), after which the student must answer, for another 10 minutes (15 min., If the work is in pairs), the questions that the members of the commettee raise, The questions will be directed to find out if the student has reached the maturity and the necessary knowledge corresponding to the Degree in Geology.
Course calendar:
- For all students
July-September: Compilation of topics proposed by teachers and by students. There must be between 3 and 10 topics in each field.
September-October: Publication of the list of topics proposed by teachers and students.
- For students presenting the TFG in February:
October: Application deadline and assignment or agreement between professors students on the topic and the date of submission of the TFG.
Deadline of the first student-tutor meeting to start a TFG.
December: Intervention of the coordinator of the subject in case of negative follow-up by the tutor or negative process by the student.
January: Student delivery of a written report draft to the tutor.
Tutor submission of the follow-up sheet and evaluation to the TFG coordinator.
Student submission of the final writen thesis in digital format, and paper copy if necessary.
February: Oral presentation of the work done to the committee on the day established in the Exam's Calendar of the Geologya Degree.
The student must provide a PDF copy of the support presentation via Virtual Campus the day before.
- For students presenting the TFG in June:
October: Deadline for application and assignment or agreement between teachers and students on topics and the date of submission of the TFG.
November: Deadline of the first student-tutor meeting to start the TFG.
March: Intervention of the coordinator of the subject in case of negative follow-up by the tutor or negative process by the student.
June: Student delivery of a writen report draft to the tutor.
Tutor submission of the follow-up sheet and evaluation to the TFG coordinator.
Student submission of the final writen thesis in digital format, and paper copy if necessary.
July: Oral presentation of the research work to the committeeon the day established in the Exam's Calendar of the Geologya Degree.
The student must provide a PDF copy of the support presentation via Virtual Campusthe day before.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Activities
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Meetings with the coordinator of the subject. | 8 | 0.32 | 8, 3, 5, 2, 7, 9 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Development of research work. | 5 | 0.2 | 8, 3, 2, 7 |
| Preparation of the oral presentation. | 122 | 4.88 | 8, 1, 3, 4, 9 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Memory writing | 15 | 0.6 | 8, 1, 3, 6, 5, 2, 4, 7, 9 |
Assessment
Both the student's progress in performing the TFG and the results obtained will be taken into account. The progress of the student's work will be evaluated through the follow-up report by the tutor. The quality of the work will be evaluated in part by the tutor (evaluation of the written report) and partly by the committee (evaluation of the written memory and oral presentation).
Based on the assessment of written reports and oral presentations, the evaluation committee shall judge the content, methodology, degree of difficulty, quality of work carried out and the cross-cutting competences acquired, in addition to the presentation and defense carried out. The committee members shall qualify separately the writen memory and an oral defence. In order for the evaluation criteria to be uniform, both the tutor and the members of the committee will fill out the prepared follow-up and evaluation sheets indicating the degree of achievement of each point.
The percentages of note of each part in the final rating will be: 10% of the tutor's follow-up report, 15% the assessment of the written memory by the tutor, 40% the average of the written memory assessment by the members of the committee and 35% the average of assessment of the presentation and answering questions by the members of the committee.
Based on the notes given by the tutors and the evaluation commission, the Coordinator of the TFG will calculate the final grades of the subject, taking into account the diversity of the committees, and publish them in the Virtual Campus of the subject. In addition, he will be in charge of assigning the Honors, if any, on the basis of the proposals of the court, and closing the minutes.
If after the public submission any of the parties is valued by the tutor or by the committee as a deficient assessment (mark of less than 3 out of 10), the final rating will be Failed, regardless of the assessments of the other parties.
In the event that the court considers that the Report has remediable deficiencies, a period of15 days will be given for the student to correct the errors. The court will issue the final grade once the student's amendment has been evaluated.
The final qualification of Failed does not allow to resubmit the work within the same call or course year and the student must re-enroll of the TFG the following course. The grade will be Not Presented if the student does not submit the written work to the tutor, or the court, within the allotted period.
Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment of the oral presentation and the answers made by the evaluators | 35% | 0 | 0 | 8, 1, 3, 6, 5, 2, 4, 7, 9 |
| Assessment of the written memory made by the evaluators | 40% | 0 | 0 | 8, 1, 3, 6, 5, 2, 4, 7, 9 |
| Assessment of written memory made by the tutor | 15% | 0 | 0 | 8, 1, 3, 6, 5, 4, 7, 9 |
| Follow-up report by the tutor | 10% | 0 | 0 | 8, 3, 6, 5, 2, 4, 7, 9 |
Bibliography
The tutor of the thesis will suggest a basic bibliography to the student according to the proposed topic.
The student should be able to expand this bibliography and independently carry out his or her own search.
Software
There is no specific software.