Unit information: Industrial Experience and Advanced Distance Learning in 2022/23

Unit name	Industrial Experience and Advanced Distance Learning
Unit code	CHEM30003
Credit points	120
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 4 (weeks 1-24)
Unit director	Professor. Bedford
Open unit status	Not open
Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units)	CHEM20007 Core Concepts in Chemistry
Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units)	None
Units you may not take alongside this one	None
School/department	School of Chemistry
Faculty	Faculty of Science

Unit Information

Why is this unit important?

This unit will provide the experience of working in an industrial environment to provide you with skills you will use in a career as a professional chemist, or in an area of employment requiring the skills of scientific reasoning, critical evaluation and numeracy.

How does this unit fit into your programme of study?

You will use laboratory techniques they you learned in their previous two years of study which can be employed to face new challenging experiments where they can learn to research and choose appropriate techniques for a given problem and work independently, managing your own time. This placement aims to provide an advanced understanding and knowledge of an area of practical chemistry, reinforcing and building on year 2 material and laying the basis to enable progress to independent laboratory work in later years and academic study in the final year.

Your learning on this unit

An overview of content

The unit comprises a year spent on an industrial placement with a chemical company. The major part of the year is spent carrying out a research project under the supervision of a member of staff of the Company and a member of staff of the School of Chemistry. You will also undertake coursework consisting of distance learning of core third-year lecture courses.

How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit

At the end of this unit, students should be able to:

• Investigate an industrial research problem through supervised work and manage their own learning.
• Take decisions in a responsible and professional manner.
• Demonstrate time management and efficiency skills.
• Demonstrate the qualities and transferable skills necessary for employment requiring: the exercise of initiative and personal responsibility; decision-making in complex and unpredictable contexts.
• Critically evaluate arguments, assumptions, abstract concepts and data (that may be incomplete), to make judgements, and to frame appropriate questions to achieve a solution - or identify a range of solutions - to a problem.
• Learn independently through the use of scholarly reviews and primary sources (for example, refereed research articles and/or original materials appropriate to the discipline).
• Employ and carry out complex practical operations and techniques.
• Make appropriate use of information and communication technology resources.

Learning Outcomes

1. Apply chemistry knowledge and understanding in an industrial context.
2. Evaluate chemical information.
3. Analyse and interpret data and solve problems creatively in chemistry and wider contexts.
4. Communicate chemistry through written reports and oral presentations.

How you will learn

Much teaching will be provided ‘on the job’ by members of staff at the company. Formal academic teaching will be entirely by distance learning using e-learning methods with full access to the core teaching material delivered at Bristol via a VLE.

How you will be assessed

Tasks which help you learn and prepare you for summative tasks (formative):

Formative tasks will be delivered in the industrial setting and will involve onsite training at the start of the project as well as opportunities to hone report writing and presentation skills throughout.

Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):

You will be assessed on your industrial placement through a final written report and oral presentation. This component will contribute 75% of the unit mark.

You will also be assessed for the remote learning component by online assessment. This distance-learning component will account for 25% of the unit mark. You must pass this distance learning component to receive credit for the unit.

When assessment does not go to plan

Reassessment of the industrial placement is not possible. If you are unable to complete this unit, you will be transferred to the third year of the parallel BSc or MSci Chemistry programmes.

Resources

If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.

If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. CHEM30003).

How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks, independent learning and assessment activity.

See the Faculty workload statement relating to this unit for more information.

Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit. The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. If you have self-certificated your absence from an assessment, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (this is usually in the next assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any extenuating circumstances and operates within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.