google earth can be used to determine tectonic plate movement/AN
Write a technical scientific report on your investigation. The audience for your report is other students. You are not required to write up everything that you did, just the aspects that directly relate to testing the hypothesis that you chose.
The mandatory length for the report plus appendices including all figures, tables and captions is no more than six A4 pages. This is strictly enforced and over-length reports are penalised: 10 marks will be deducted for each page or part of a page over the 6-page limit for report plus appendices together following University guidelines.
You should aim to restrict the appendices to less than 1 A4 page. The text should be 11 or 12 point and all the figures must be produced at a size that is legible at 100% on-screen. Further guidance on the mandatory length is given at the end of Question 1. We have also provided a rough idea of how much you should write in each section; this is for guidance only so it can be varied depending on the investigation.
Divide your answer into sections using the following subtitles:
title
introduction
hypothesis
method
results
discussion and interpretation
conclusions
reference list
acknowledgements
appendices
More details on what to include in each section are provided below. Ensure that you use these sections rigorously and that you do not, for instance, put the discussion in with the results or the method in the introduction.
The report that you present should be internally consistent and linked throughout. Thus, the method should be directly relevant to the hypothesis and describe how you obtained the results that you present. These results should be the observations and measurements that you collected, not results from published material or the work of your fellow students. The discussion and interpretation should be fully supported by the results you have presented.
Title
Provide a succinct, descriptive title for your work. The title should be relevant, accurate and informative. (Up to 15 words) (2 marks)
Introduction
This section should provide the background to your study, including the geological setting and previous work. Any previous work should be referenced appropriately, either within or at the end of the statement to which it refers, for example: “most of the rocks on Walton beach are thought to be Ordovician in age (Harris et al., 2013)”. References can include the module materials. (About 0.5 of an A4 page) (12 marks)
Hypothesis
Clearly state the hypothesis that you tested. (2 marks)
Method
Describe fully the methods that you used to collect and analyse your data; these methods should include details of the type of observations and/or measurements you made, and what equipment you used to do this. For instance; “close up photographs of the six main types of building stone were taken using a Canon Ixus camera”, “the strike and dip measurements were averaged using an excel spreadsheet” etc. (About 0.5 of an A4 page) (8 marks)
Results
Provide a succinct summary of your results i.e. all the observations and measurements that you made which are relevant to the hypothesis that you tested. Your results should include:
text summarising the results and referring to any figures and/or tables
a main table and/or figure that summarises your data (e.g. X-Y graph, graphic log, map, cross section, field sketch etc.)
subsidiary figures and/or tables (e.g. carefully selected, annotated photographs)
(2.0 to 2.5 A4 pages) (20 marks)
