SCHOOL OF CHEMISTRY STAFF-STUDENT CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE Staff:

SCHOOL OF CHEMISTRY
STAFF-STUDENT CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE
Minutes of Meeting held at 5.15 p.m. on Thursday 24th October 2013 in Lecture
Theatre C
Present
Staff: Dr Alan Aitken (Director of Teaching, CH1301 Coordinator), Dr Chris
Baddeley (Deputy Director of Teaching, CH1401 Coordinator), Dr Iain Smellie (1st
Year Laboratory Coordinator), Dr Fiona Gray (CH1202 Coordinator), Dr Catherine
Cazin (CH2501 Coordinator) Iona Hutchison (Disabilities Officer), Dr Matt Clarke
(CH3621 Lab Coordinator), Dr Georg Hähner (Industrial Placement Coordinator), Dr
Tanja van Mourik (Hons Project Coordinator), Dr Renald Schaub (Hons Project
Coordinator) and Vicki Cormie (University Library Representative).
Apologies: Professor Paul Kamer (CH2501 Lab Coordinator)
Students:
James Gordon (School President – Chair)
Victoria Porley and Andreas van den Hombergh (Level 1)
Matt Kaminski, Colin Casey and Amol Thakkar (Level 2)
Orlaith Draper (Level 2 – Direct Entry)
Charlotte Sansome, Ashley Ross, Fiona Woodhall and Naomi Farrer (Level 3)
Grace Turner, Imogen Hayman (Level 4)
Jonathan Bell, Will Kew, (Level 5)
Talia Shmool (Semester Abroad student)
Level 2000 (MK, CC, AT)
CH2501
The class reps stated that students are generally happy with the lecture component of
CH2501 though it was felt that the handouts provided by some lecturers contained
two much detail. At this point, RAA made a general comment that it is very difficult
for lecturers to satisfy every student in this respect. Some students like to have
comprehensive handouts; others prefer to take notes.
CH2501 Lab
Concern was expressed by the class reps that students are not sure of how best to
structure their lab reports. They requested to have more detailed guidance and felt that
neither the introductory talk nor the lab manual is sufficient in providing this
guidance. IAS suggested that the class reps should arrange a meeting with the
laboratory coordinator in order to discuss these issues directly. RAA informed the
meeting that a comprehensive review of laboratory based teaching in Levels 10003000 is underway and this type of issue will be discussed.
Level 2000 Direct Entry (OD)
CH1202
OD reported that some students are concerned with the nature of some of the physical
chemistry tutorial questions. FMG stated that the purpose of these additional
questions was to determine the areas of physical chemistry which students were
struggling to understand enabling tutors to focus their attention on these areas in the
tutorials.
CH1202/CH2501 Lab
The three lab sessions in Week 1 for Direct Entrants were found to be useful. OD
asked if it was possible for the number of sessions to be increased. IAS stated that this
was something that could be considered as part of the ongoing review of lab-based
teaching.
CC asked for feedback from the Level 2000 students on the workshop provision in
CH2501. The class reps reported that they had received no negative comments on the
NMR workshop but a suggestion was made that an additional IR workshop would be
useful.
Level 3000 (CS, AR, NF, FW)
CH3716/7, CH3513, CH3615
The class reps stated that students were happy with the CH3513, CH3716 and
CH3717 lecture courses though they would appreciate more worked examples in
CH3716/7 lectures and more tutorial provision. CJB informed the meeting that, in
addition to the timetabled CH3717 tutorials, additional revision tutorials would be
held in Week 12. Students welcomed the podcast provision and quality of lecture
notes in CH3615.
CH3512
Concern was raised over the amount of material presented to students in CH3512. The
class reps reported that students felt that they were provided with too much lecture
material and requested improved Aims and Objectives for the course. They found the
tutorials useful, but were concerned that there is a perceived requirement to read a
textbook (Hartwig) yet very few copies are available in the library. VC stated that
additional copies of this textbook will be purchased.
CH3431 Workshop
The class reps felt that the lecture on biological mass spectrometry was somewhat out
of place in the workshop. IAS pointed out that this lecture has proved to be extremely
useful to students who have gone on to work on Honours Projects in Biological
Chemistry.
The students reported that the 2 x two hour sessions on referencing were very useful
and had an excellent handout, but felt that 2 x two hours was too long for this class. A
request was made for the NMR workshop to be allocated more time. RAA agreed to
consider these requests.
CH3621/2 Lab
Some students complained that lab reports were not being returned quickly enough.
MLC explained that every effort was being made to return the reports more rapidly,
but for some experiments the staff markers had a large number of reports which
extended the time required for marking. Suggestions were made for ways to improve
the running of the CH3621 lab including trying to make each experiment more even
in length and trying to avoid the situation where some students are able to carry out
more experiments than others simply due to the relative lengths of each experiment.
MLC agreed to consider these points. In addition, a request was made for more
demonstrators to be available in the lab. IAS stated that new methods for recruiting
demonstrators are being implemented which should improve the provision of
demonstrators.
The class reps reported that students felt that more training should be made available
for Mestranova. MLC suggested that this could be arranged by including Mestranova
in the CH3431 workshop.
A general point raised by students was that the CH3621 report deadline coincides
with a number of other deadlines for tutorial work and a CH3431 class test. The class
reps asked if these deadlines could be spread out in any way. CJB agreed to look into
ways of modifying the timetable in future to alleviate these problems.
Level 4000 (IH, GT, TS)
External Placement
No issues were reported – the distance learning work was reported to be proceeding
well.
CH4612/CH4614 Industrial Site Visit
Concern was expressed that not enough information had been disseminated to
CH4614 students regarding the details of the Site Visit. RAA reassured the meeting
that all was in hand and pointed out that this was the first time that a site visit had
been arranged as part of these modules.
ID4001 Teaching and Communicating in Science
Some concern was expressed over the ID4001 module. Some students felt that their
Teacher Mentors were not adequately briefed on what students were required to do
during their teaching placement. CJB stated that all Teacher Mentors were provided
with a detailed description of the requirements of the module. In 2013/4, nine
Chemistry students were enrolled onto this module which made it difficult to place
everyone in schools that had previous experience with this module. CJB also pointed
out that as students are placed in a wide range of school environments (primary
schools, state secondary schools and private schools), it was difficult to define a
precise day-to-day structure for the module. Students requested more feedback on
their Special Project Proposal. CJB indicated that he would provide feedback at the
forthcoming tutorial.
Honours Research Projects
A complaint was made that some supervisors were not apparently aware of the
number of hours students are required to work per week and that students should not
be expected (indeed are not allowed) to stay in the lab until 7 or 8pm. TvM stated that
she would remind academic staff of the regulations.
Level 5000 (JB, WK)
Integrating Chemistry modules (CH4461/CH5461)
It is felt by students that the tutorial component and Gray Essay require a lot of work
for very little credit. A suggestion was made that the essay could be moved into the
Honours Project. RAA pointed out that it would be extremely difficult to find a topic
and a robust scheme of assessment for the Gray Essay (which has an associated prize)
if it was part of the project.
The class reps wondered whether the module could be assessed solely by coursework.
This was not felt to be possible by academic staff due to the requirement for a robust
assessment.
A request was made for Level 2000 notes to be made available as some students no
longer had access to their original notes.
CH5511
The class reps commented on the new literature review and presentation component
that had been introduced into CH5511. Some felt that they would have preferred an
additional tutorial, but others commented that the preparation of a presentation was a
good way to learn the material.
Careers Resources
Students would like to have more access to Careers Centre resources and were
disappointed that the Careers Centre is closed on a Friday afternoon. RAA suggested
that special drop in sessions could be arranged where Careers Centre staff visited the
Purdie Building to provide careers advice to students. He would contact Br Ben Carter
to arrange this.
Level 1000
CH1401 Lectures
Some concern was expressed that the lecture material was too basic for students. CJB
pointed out that students studying this module have a wide range of previous
Chemistry knowledge so it was inevitable that some students would be very familiar
with the lecture material.
CH1401 Labs
The class reps reported that students are generally happy with the lab sessions and
with the feedback received on lab reports. Concern was expressed that students didn’t
understand where they had lost marks in their lab reports. IAS pointed out that the
marking scheme is described in the 1st year handbook and RAA emphasised that a
mark above 70% was considered to be a 1st class performance. IAS stated that if
students were unhappy with the feedback they had received, they could discuss this
issue with him.
AOB
Review of Lab Teaching
IAS asked the class reps to canvas opinion among their fellow students on ways that
lab-based teaching could be improved. Feedback from students could then be
considered as part of the ongoing review of lab teaching.
Lab Safety
IAS stressed the importance of students adhering to lab safety regulations. He
informed the meeting that several issues (improper disposal of broken glass and
syringes, wearing of lab coats in the Computer Wedge area, general untidiness) had
been raised by the Medical Building Safety Officer. As a tenant of the Medical
Building, we cannot afford to allow students to break these regulations and there must
be a general improvement in attitude to safety amongst the students.
Taught MSc
RAA informed the meeting that we now have four students studying for a taught
MSc. It was agreed that these students should be represented on this Committee in
future. It would also be appropriate for Dr Petr Kilian the MSc degree coordinator to
attend.
Actions taken since 2012-3 meetings of SSCC
RAA indicated that a number of actions had been taken in light of the 2012-3 SSCC
meetings as follows:
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No integrating chemistry classes on St Andrew’s Day
Honours projects now 50 credits (previously 40) – providing additional choice
to students in terms of available lecture courses.
Provision for training in interview skills has been improved
In order to make the CH3431 Workshop assessments more transparent, an
email clarifying their timing and weighting was sent to students this year
New tutorial rooms provided (Rm215e and Rm222)
Request to move Level 3000 course to Semester 2 to alleviate pressure in
Semester 1. This was considered, but it was decided to make no change.
The meeting closed at 6.45 p.m.
Dr C J Baddeley