Unit information: Environmental Field Analysis in 2012/13

Unit name	Environmental Field Analysis
Unit code	EASCM0023
Credit points	20
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Academic Year (weeks 1 - 52)
Unit director	Professor. Sherman
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	Successful completion of years 1,2 and 3 of the Environmental Geoscience degree programme curriculum
Co-requisites	n/a
School/department	School of Earth Sciences
Faculty	Faculty of Science

Description including Unit Aims

This unit is designed to build on student's previous field experience, particularly in environmental geochemistry. It also provides an opportunity to undertake a major synthesis of a wide range of geochemical data that will be collected in the field and processed by students. This exercise should prove an excellent preparation for MSci research project conducted in the latter half of the academic year.

Intended Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the class you will be able to:

• Plan and undertake a concerted field sampling campaign focused on natural waters and sediments, and in order to produce a near-closed budget of a lake.

• Understand the pitfalls encountered in collecting and preparing samples for a range of chemical analyses.

• Record field data relevant to future analysis of the geochemical data.

• Understand and undertake a range of sample preparation methods and analytical approaches.

• Work effectively in a team to meet a strict deadline in both field and laboratory conditions.

• Assess the chemical data quantitatively using box models.

• Seek out, using literature and web resources, missing data that you require for the data synthesis.

• Prepare a written report on the results in the style of a scientific paper.

Teaching Information

Practicals and fieldwork.

Assessment Information

The course will be assessed via a written report, in the style of a scientific paper that could be submitted to Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. Students are expected to visit the website of the journal and obtain the format and maximum length of the paper themselves. Diagrams, including plots portraying the data but also both introductory and summative diagrams, will form an essential part of this report. Assessment will be based on faculty criteria.

We will hold introductory sessions on the data analysis expected on the trip. Help with examining and understanding the data, as well as in constructing models that describe it, will be provided by the staff involved in the course during the weeks following the trip.

A deadline for the report will be decided in discussion with the students at the start of the fieldwork.

Reading and References

A number of key papers will be provided to help students begin their literature search. However, as part of the synthesis of the geochemical data, and the writing of the report, students will be expected to undertake their own research in the literature to obtain both the background material they require and key pieces of data that we do not obtain in the field.