All MSc students are required to carry out, in the laboratory, five experiments in the Autumn term. The experiments are each designed to take about 30 hours experimental and study time, and can be conducted whenever the student is free. The laboratory periods marked on the timetable only indicate those occasions when a member of staff, or demonstrators, will be available in the laboratory to support you. Specific points on any experiment may need to be answered by the supervisor of the experiment. Students are encouraged to work in the evenings and during the weekends. The College and departmental safety regulations, particularly those regarding lone working, should be observed at all times.
At the first meeting, you will be given access to a list, and descriptions, of the experiments offered. You are asked to select five experiments and submit them, via the experiment choice submission form, by 13:00 Thursday of Week A1. The timetable for these experiments will be published in the CSP Laboratory web pages. An email will be sent notifying publication. Experimental work begins at 9am on Tuesday of Week A2 at a meeting with the demonstrators.
Please be aware that submitting your choices is not a guarantee that you will be allocated your desired experiments. Every effort is made to ensure everyone gets their first choices. The Lab Manager compiles the timetable and has a responsiblity to ensure all courses run and have a fair balance of candidate numbers. This is to help the demonstrators to manage their workload and ensure the viability of the experiment.
You will be expected to keep a Logbook, not scrappy pieces of paper. This should start with a record of the title and supervisor's name. Basically, the Logbook should be an adequate record (diary) of your work, so that several weeks later both you and your supervisor can gain a knowledge of your experimental work and be able to check the results that you have obtained. Notes on the relevant theory may also be included in your Logbook which should be concluded with an informal assessment and a discussion of your results.
Logbooks should be shown for examination, to the associated demonstrator of the experiment, within one week of the completion of the experiment. (refer to the MSc booklet).
All logbooks will be inspected in the following week of the experiment.
You should write up two formal reports for two out of five experiments. Your Logbook should be the main source of the results which should be presented in your formal reports. A formal report should be written up as if it were a paper for a scientific journal. It should adequately introduce the topic area, but not include too much history and duplicated book work. Reference to relevant theory and background should be given. You should include a discussion of your results and end with a summary and conclusion. The total document should be less than 20 A4 size pages, with line spacing of 1.5 and font size of 11px.
Formal reports must be submitted via Blackboard (refer to the MSc booklet), before the appropriate deadline. Details will be given in due course. Reports submitted after deadline will be down marked by 5% per day. A Pass mark must be obtained in each of the individual experiment. A mark not less than 50% (i.e. D+) must be obtained in each "Formal Report".