| CODE | ENR0010 | ||||||||
| TITLE | Experimental Setup and Procedures | ||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 00 - Mod Pre-Tert, Foundation, Proficiency & DegreePlus | ||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 3 | ||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Faculty of Engineering | ||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | The study-unit provides students with the necessary skills to conduct and report scientific studies. The study-unit will be divided into three parts: Scientific experiments: The study-unit will introduce the student to the concepts of of formulating and testing a hypothesis, measurement errors and uncertainty that is present in an experiment and how this affects the evaluation of the hypothesis. Basic concepts of data analysis including determining linear and proportional relations between variables and the concepts of correlation and causality will also be introduced. Reporting and presentation of work to others: The students will be shown good practices in report writing and presentation of results in reports. Students will also be introduced to concepts of academic integrity. Practical sessions: Students will be given practical experiments to consolidate their learning. Study-unit Aims: The study-unit aims to provide the necessary skills for students to conduct, report and present scientific studies. The unit aims to teach students the good practices in experimental design so that the student will be able to not only conduct successful experiments but also to draw suitable conclusions from scientific experiments. The unit also aims to teach students good practices in reporting and presenting scientific work to others. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: 1. Describe the effect of errors and uncertainty on an experiment; 2. Explain the difference between proportional and linear relations between variables; 3. Explain the difference between causality and correlation and how to design experiments to test for causality. 2. Skills By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: 1. Formulate a hypothesis and design experiments to test the hypothesis; 2. Identify the source of errors in an experiment and take mitigating action to reduce the effect of errors; 3. Determine whether two variables are linearly or proportionally related; 4. Design experiments so as to be able to draw valid conclusions from the experiment; 5. Write good, structured reports which make good use of data presentation; 6. Write reports with suitable references and which maintain academic integrity. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: - Field, A., & Hole, G. (2003). How to design and report experiments. Sage. |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture, Independent Study & Practicum | ||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Alexandra Bonnici |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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