Projects matching your search criteria
Being a Student: An Ethnographic Perspective
The use of ethnography to teach a course in ethnographic methods exemplifies the project's commitment to a research-led approach to learning. Students will learn about qualitative research methods by researching their own learning and university environment. The approach will identify and challenge the students' own notions of responsibility and learning. In this way, students will learn about ethnography and will become more aware of how their own learning works.
Project Team: Alberto Corsin-Jimenez Faculty: Humanities
Funding year: 2005
Keywords: ethnography, reflection, reflexivity, ethnographic, research, diary, individual, undergraduate, qualitative
Case Study (PDF, 75Kb)
Assessment and Enterprise through EBL
The aim is to development a robust method of assessment based upon the application of enterprise skills to an investigation. It is difficult to devise fair assessment when learning is characterised by a lack of rigid structure as in EBL. The project will develop a guiding structure for EBL assessment. This will provide some guidance and constraint to the lines of enquiry being followed and yet still allow students considerable freedom when making their investigations.
Project Team: Tim Jones Faculty: Engineering and Physical Sciences
Funding year: 2005
Keywords: enterprise, assessment, project, individual, undergraduate, engineering, report writing
Case Study (PDF, 129.6Kb)
Embedding Interdisciplinarity: Developing a Generic Undergraduate EBL Team Project Module
Global and societal issues are best addressed by
interdisciplinary teams. This requires graduates to be able to communicate their knowledge and skills across interdisciplinary boundaries. Building on previous work, this project will develop an undergraduate interdisciplinary EBL module which will be open to all disciplines across the university. 24 students from 5 disciplines will work together and provide feedback on their experiences of the module so as to identify institutional issues, including support for WebCT.
Project Team: Julia McMorrow, Charlotte Woods, Isobel Braidman, Susana Lorenzo, Caroline Bowsher Faculty: Humanities, Medical and Human Sciences, Life Sciences
Funding year: 2005
Keywords: interdisciplinary, undergraduate, webct, medicine, geography, spanish, languages, education, biology, teamwork, poster
Case Study (PDF, 137.4Kb)
Pedagogic Development - Enquiry-Based Learning for Constructed Textiles
Learning how to weave can be problematic for designers. The discipline demands the visualisation of 3D structures and manufacturing processes. Weave design has traditionally been taught through a technology-based route using lectures, laboratory classes and written exams. Observations and analyses of exam results have shown that the design students find constructed textiles difficult to master. Through this project we will translate some of the lectures from TX2009 Weaving for Designers into Problem Based Learning.
The aims of this project are to:
- Match the teaching methods more closely with the learning style of the students
- Promote deep and holistic learning
- Promote a more vibrant and stimulating learning experience
- Ensure students are at the centre of the learning environment
These aims will be met by creating an EBL environment for constructed textile design through a blended learning approach, converting weave design lectures into PBL, and creating a WebCT portal in which curriculum objectives and study techniques are clarified.
Project Team: Kate Sayer Faculty: Engineering and Physical Sciences
Funding year: 2005
Keywords: textiles, design, visualisation, 3d, manufacturing, process, weaving, webct, pbl, undergraduate, teamwork
Case Study (PDF, 98.4Kb)
Using j-Dorama in EBL language study in Japanese
This project is to develop and trial materials to foster a (2 or 3 student) team EBL approach to grammatical and socio-cultural issues that must be addressed in understanding and ‘translating’ texts (Japanese TV dramas). The aim is assist learners in becoming confident and autonomous in both group and individual study. The development of higher level skills in using dictionaries, online, human and other resources is expected to emerge as part of the outcome of a group presentation project.
Project Team: Jonathan Bunt Faculty: Humanities
Funding year: 2006
Keywords: japan, japanese, languages, j-Dorama, translation, translating, drama, television (tv), grammar, video, teamwork, undergraduate
Case Study (PDF, 139.8Kb)
EBL for EBL: Enquiry-Based Learning for an End to being Bored with Language Learning
To encourage students to engage actively with continuous independent language-learning, particularly the perfection of grammar and mastery of pronunciation in French, and to reflect upon their own learning process.
Project Team: Julie Lawton, Annie Morton, Catherine Franc Faculty: Humanities
Funding year: 2006
Keywords: french, languages, grammar, phonetics, pronunciation, undergraduate, teamwork, first year
Case Study (PDF, 154.2Kb)
Using EBL to improve the teaching of science, technology and innovation policy in a business school context
The proposal aims to explore the use of EBL to improve the quality of the teaching of science, technology and innovation policy studies in MBS (and thus to improve the learning outcomes and employability of students taking those courses) by building upon our strong tradition of multi-disciplinary, research-led teaching and by consolidating existing ad-hoc practice of EBL into a more systematic use of multiple teaching methods to improve recruitment and retention onto STI policy course units and pathways. The outcome will be to increase the uptake of EBL in our teaching thereby improving the quality of teaching provision. Staff and student evaluation of course units and the pathway/programme will indicate the extent to which we succeed, as will the extent to which we are able to maintain/increase student numbers and at the same time improve student learning.
Project Team: Dr Kieron Flanagan, Dr Elvira Uyarra, Ms Kate Barker, Dr Michael Keenan, Prof Philippe Laredo Faculty: Humanities
Funding year: 2006
Keywords: MBS, science, technology, innovation, business, policy, multi-discipline, enterprise, case, undergraduate
An Enquiry-Based Chemical Engineering Design Project for First Year students
The aim of the project is to create a new Chemical Engineering Design Project that incorporates relevant aspects of today’s process industry with an enquiry-based approach. The objective is to design an open-ended task based on a real industrial problem in which students will use all mechanisms of enquiry to elicit a solution. The main purpose is to change the approach from a fixed and sometimes contrived process design with very restricted alternatives and solutions to a more open-ended problem in which students can explore different routes, make decisions and find different solutions depending upon those decisions. The project will look at real industrial questions and will set an engineering working environment by using role-playing. The work will be carried out in small teams with a team leader and also a chief engineer and a manager. The academics will act as consultants to the teams and a representative from industry will provide students with relevant information about the problem at hand.
Project Team: Dr Robin Curtis, Dr Esther Ventura-Medina Faculty: Engineering and Physical Sciences
Funding year: 2006
Keywords: chemical engineering, design, project, industry, process, role-play, first year, undergraduate, teamwork, professional
Case Study (PDF, 85.2Kb)
Injecting Into the Groin: Aim to Improve IV Drug Users Care
In my third year of my degree I had a four week placement with a GP in Heywood. During this placement I was introduced to Dr Taylor, as I attended his drug clinics because I have an interest in the area.
At Dr Taylors GP practice there are around 160 IV drug users. Drug users suffer massively with problems of venous hypertension in their lower limbs due to injecting into their groin. Such problems include deep vein thromboses, infection, venous insufficiency, and consequently ulcers, which may result in amputation of the limb.
Firstly, I will design a questionnaire to find out which of the patients inject into their groin, and how often they do so. I will then collaborate the results, and take photographic evidence of the effects of injecting into the groin. I aim to meet with an Interventional Radiologist, at Wythenshawe Hospital, and a Vascular Surgeon at Royal Oldham Hospital, to see if showing them my findings will help to improve the care they give such patients.
I propose that using the skills of the interventional radiologist, stenting the veins in the legs of the patients would improve blood flow, and consequently reduce the number of problems the patients experience.
Project Team: Chloe Goodall Faculty: Medical and Human Sciences
Funding year: 2009
Keywords: undergraduate research drug users medicine
Aspects of Vedic and Greek Poetics
In this project I will study the synchronic poetics of the Rg-Veda, the oldest collection of hymns in Sanskrit, and offer notes towards its relationship to poetics in other Indo-European languages, with special reference to Ancient Greek and Latin. As these three languages, amongst others, derive from a common source and share cognate forms, institutions, etc., so they also show elements of a poetic language that can often be proved to have been inherited from a common source, namely Indo-European (circa 4000BC). To exemplify this relationship and common inheritance, I propose to read closely a few of the hymns from the collection, above all those concerning the ancient myth of the dragon-slaying, which, following work by the American scholar Calvert Watkins, can be linked to such forms as heroic song in ancient Greece, as well as myth and saga in Anglo-Saxon England. However, I will focus on the Sanskrit evidence, and seek to explicate some of the formal techniques employed by the poets, especially concerning lexical fields, and derivational morphology.
The outcomes would include a closer appreciation of poetics in an ancient language; a clarification of inherited and innovated poetics, both in Sanskrit and in its wider relationship to Greek and Latin especially; and an exploration of some of the formal linguistic means by which the poets practised their craft. These means include, but are not limited to, the use of various meters, semantic relationships, and syntactic expressions, all of which characterize the respective poetic grammars.
This study I would disseminate primarily through a cross-disciplinary event I am organizing, jointly run between Classics (in which department I am enrolled), and South Asian Studies (for whom I currently run a group for grammar support in Sanskrit). The event is at the moment named ‘Sanskrit Day in Manchester’, and will include seminars on Sanskrit and Indo-European by Prof. David Langslow (dept. of Classics, Manchester), as well as sessions on reading hymns of the Rg-Veda, one of which I am co-teaching and in which I would be able to share some of the finds of my study. It should be emphasized that this event is being jointly organized, so the expected attendance will show a breadth of disciplines represented. This event will be coinciding with a conference on Sanskrit to be held the following day, namely the Sanskrit Tradition In The Modern World. Further discussion of my study within Manchester could be held in the undergraduate reading group for Classical languages, which I began and currently run, as well as at upcoming conferences and language schools I am to attend in Leiden, Netherlands, and Berlin, Germany.
Project Team: Jesse Lundquist Faculty: Humanities
Funding year: 2009
Keywords: undergraduate research vedic greek poetics linguistics classical languages
The Plath Enigma: tracing the changes in Sylvia Plath’s literary work in relation to those that occurred within her own life
We aim to investigate how Sylvia Plath’s literary work changes throughout the course of her life, and to derive (through a detailed biographical study of Plath) where her major influences were taken from. We plan to develop upon the consensual belief that her father, Otto Plath, and husband, Ted Hughes, both played major roles in Plath’s development as a poet - and to investigate how these two influences eventually mould into one in Plath’s pinnacle poem, ‘Daddy’.
We also aim to find links between Plath’s ‘Ariel’ and Hughes’ ‘Birthday Letters’, hopefully shedding further light upon the couple’s relationship and marriage.
We would also like to consider the current literary criticism on Plath and offer our own evaluation in relation to our findings.
Through an analysis of both Plath’s and Hughes’ work we hope to further understand the claims against Hughes made by many feminist critics stating that he was a cruel husband. We would also like to evaluate Plath’s feelings towards Hughes in relation to her feelings towards her own father. We shall question whether Hughes was a poor husband or whether Plath’s own opinion of him was clouded by her own mental state.
We expect to find particular relevance in Plath’s heritage and upbringing along with her early experiences of living in America. Through her journals we hope to find some prerequisite of her later mental breakdown, and additional evidence shall be sought through an analysis of her Letters Home.
We aim to approach this research project with a totally neutral stance and to allow our own findings to influence our opinion of both Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. Similarly, our presentation and report will hold the same neutral stance. We also aim to investigate both sides of any debates that may arise, as the current literature on the Plath-Hughes debate is massively divided.
Project Team: Joe White and Katie Watson Faculty: Humanities
Funding year: 2009
Keywords: undergraduate research sylvia plath ted hughes poetry
A Comparative study on factors influencing attitudes towards Oral Health Care using community sample studies from a developed and developing country
This project aims to compare the various factors that influence peoples' attitudes towards their overall oral health using sample studies from the United Kingdom and Zimbabwe. It is also intended to find out if these factors qualify the null hypothesis that individual attitudes towards their oral health care vary according to the level of economic development in a country. Data for this research will mainly be obtained through the use of
a questionnaire exploring the level of oral health care importance and
awareness in these two communities. In order to obtain an unbiased result, an
equal number of participants of varying age groups, socio-economic backgrounds, gender and ethnicity will be used in both surveys.Data obtained from this study will be quantified graphically to explore trends relating to the aim of the study. In order to gain a better insight on the Oral health service in
Zimbabwe I intend to use video coverage and interviews, from dental care
professionals serving the community (with consent). I chose the community of
Zimbabwe as it is home for me and will be visiting over the Easter Break 2010. I have also worked in a Zimbabwean dental community and anticipate the results from this study to have interesting outcomes.
Project Team: Makhosazana Mguni Faculty: Medical and Human Sciences
Funding year: 2009
Keywords: undergraduate research dentistry developing country
Molecular evolution of visual pigments in the wandering spider Cupiennius salei
Animals absorb light with proteins called opsins, and having a suite of opsins absorbing light at different wavelengths allows for colour vision. Three opsins were recently identified in jumping spiders, and during my placement project at the University of Vienna, I set out to isolate and characterise homologs to these in another species, Cupiennius salei. A homolog for the Rh2 gene was identified, and one section in the middle showed a remarkable diversity in its genetic make-up, suggesting multiple gene duplication events, with possible functional divergence (i.e. different versions of the same gene would be able to absorb light across a broad spectrum).Two possible explanations are that either different DNA sequences are the result of gene conversion events, whereby sections of gene are accidentally swapped or copied within the cell nucleus, or alternative splicing, whereby the building blocks of the protein are assembled in different orders.
I am hoping to build on my work in Austria by analysing the structural diversity of the protein across a much broader sequence to give a more accurate picture of the phylogenetic history of the gene. This will involve both statistical analyses to test for possible functional divergence and 3D modelling of the protein to examine the protein structure in space. Furthermore, I intend to examine the so-called ‘untranslated region’, the section of the the gene which does not actually reflected in the protein, which will elucidate possible gene conversion and alternative splicing events.
The grand pattern of invertebrate opsin evolution is one of repeated duplication and deletion. C. salei seems to provide a striking example of this pattern; (at least) one long-wave opsin seems to have been lost, whilst one seems to have multiplied many times to take its place. Furthermore, data on spiders and their relatives are currently severely lacking, so as well as filling in a large gap in the evolutionary tree, work such as this can also help resolve issues regarding the overall relatedness of groups such as arachnids and millipedes/centipedes.
Project Team: Thomas Ellis Faculty: Life Sciences and Humanities
Funding year: 2009
Keywords: undergraduate research spiders opsins light animals absorption
Investigating the role of embodiment in space metaphors, and the restrictions it has on innovation
The aim of this project is to identify to what extent space metaphors must be grounded in embodiment. A basic frame exists for the space metaphors under investigation, however; the particular variant adopted may differ.
An inter-disciplinary investigation into particular space metaphors will be taken, thus semantic, pragmatic, and etymological considerations will be taken into account. Phonological restrictions on space metaphors will be investigated as an alternative to the embodiment approach.
Project Team: Maya Zara Faculty: Humanities
Funding year: 2009
Keywords: undergraduate research space metaphors liguistics
