Chapter 4 - Creative programming exercise

Chapter 4 - Creative programming exercise#

The assignment#

  • Ask a research question that interests you and answer it by analysis of data or numerical modelling in Python. Keep the questions as simple as possible! Consider what is possible in the given time.

    Note

    • If you have come up with a question, it’s likely too complicated. Ask some smaller questions to the larger main question and one of these smaller questions is probably your feasible research question.

    • Make hypotheses that answer your questions: can you test the hypothesis by plotting data of / changing values of one or two variables in one of the 1D models of Chapter 3?

    • It does not have to be novel rocket science. You are welcome to be as creative as you want to be, but ask yourself what will be feasible with your programming skills.

  • Do the work! Properly code your data analysis and a plot (or a few), or change a Chapter 3 model and run it, clearly indicating what you changed.

  • Present your work on a simple mini-poster which includes the following:

    1. The poster must contain all the steps of the complete empirical cycle (question/aim, hypothesis, method, results, brief discussion, conclusions).

    2. Don’t make a beautiful poster; make a functional poster that communicates your results. It must be readable from 1.5 m distance on the standard laptop screen.

    3. Use telegram style. Don’t use complete sentences. Use keywords, bullets, only write out the research question and the conclusion (which is the answer).

    4. Figures are necessary! Your results, and perhaps sketches (hand-drawn is OK) or an image to show the phenomenon in real life that you study.

    5. See some examples of posters for conferences.

      Note

      Most of the posters in the link above were printed on A0 poster but are also readable on A3. Your poster needs to be readable on screen, so less information is needed. This is the check! Can your proverbial (grand)parents read it on the screen without starting to mess with their glasses?

Evaluation#

  • This is an individual exercise, which means you can accept comments from others that help to improve things but you do the improvements.

  • During the presentation day, you will peer review work of others to help them improve their work and to see what you can learn from others. This means you will have to provide comments following a rubric.

    Note

    The peer review rubric contains the following items:

    • A grade (0,1,2) for poster clarity and whether the empirical cycle is recognizable.

    • A grade (0,1,2) for whether the student has effective communication in poster and pitch.

    • Written feedback on tips and tops

    For the peer review, we count on your integrity and attentiveness. Realize that your fellow students benefit from a clear and critical review and not from a friendly review.

  • Aside from the peer review, each poster and presentation will be graded by two course teachers. The rubric of the course teachers contains the same items as the peer review, with additionally a grade (0,1,2) for creativity. The creativity grade will be determined on how innovative the research approach is compared to what we expect from first-year MSc students and how it compares to the work of your peers.

  • Finally, your code will also be graded (0,1,2) based on whether it runs properly and if the comments are clear.

PRODUCTS TO HAND IN#

The following needs to be submitted for the creative exercise of Chapter 4:

  • 1 PDF of the poster made on one page in powerpoint at the dimensions of your laptop screen. If you used sources (published papers), include references in small print.

  • Your code, including in the comments the online source of the data that you used, if applicable.

  • Peer review forms, which will be handed out during the presentation day.

Important

The final grade for the creative exercise is determined as follows:

  • Average of the course teachers grade for clear poster and recognizable empirical cycle (20%)

  • Average of the course teachers grade for convincing and clear presentation (20%)

  • Average of the course teachers grade for creativity (20%)

  • Does the code run and are the comments clear (20%)

  • Average of the grades from the peer review (20%)

The final grade for the creative exercise will make up 20% of the final grade of the course.

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