Project notebook

Dear Scientists,
Welcome to your final year project module a chance to put into place the skills that
you have developed over the past two years. To be successful you need to engage
with your projects and your supervisor, please remember that they also teach you on
other modules across all years so be professional and arrange a meeting with them
to discuss your data and research ideas. If sending emails, please ensure that you
write in a business format and highlight what module you are talking about and what
subject material you are wishing to discuss. This will make it easier for them to guide
you rather than a constant stream of emails asking for additional information. You
will be submitting your work via this template, please do not alter the layout.

In summary, this notebook looks to capture:

 Your supervisory meetings and action points.

 Your reflections (as and when you work on project related aspects).
 Your understanding and connect with ethical and health and safety
considerations. 
 Your understanding and progress of data collection and analysis aspects of
your project and how that evolves over this project journey.
 Progress summaries at 4 time points during this project journey.
 Your reflections of your CV and online panel interview and thoughts about
your professional development.
 Your understanding of your final year project, it's impact and future in the field.

A reminder then that this project notebook has a weighting of 10% of the

module 6BICH003W UG Research Project. If you have any questions, please use
the discussion board, use the drop-in sessions, and speak with your supervisor.

Best wishes,
UG Research Project Team
Submission details
1. Use the headings for this proforma, do not add additional ones or delete them,
if you have nothing to write under the heading then leave blank. Students will
lose marks if academics cannot find the relevant information.
2. Use Arial 12 1.5 space as per the document
3. Do not alter the layout of the table, just write within the boxes there are marks
for following the guidance, don’t throw these away by changing the elements
4. Ensure you save your information as you go along and make a backup
(simple way email yourself a copy after you have finished for the day)
5. Check spelling and grammar, ensure document looks professional and
attempt all sections
6. Please ensure that you complete the following sections and submit as a word
or pdf via the relevant Turnitin link

Advice
Do not leave to the last moment this is something you should be working on each
week, by doing this you will complete small elements and not be left with a large
document to complete at the end.
Check list
Title Sections/Notes Completed (Tick
when done)
Supervisory meeting log Ensure you complete
scheduled meetings
Project work. All info Experimental work,
related
meetings
Project progress SEM 1 Week 4-6
summaries
SEM 1 Week 10-12
SEM 2 Week 4-6
SEM 2 Week 10-12
Project impact and future Did you meet your final
ideas
aim/s OR hypothesis/es for
your undergraduate
project?
What impact do you think
your research may have on
society?
Employability Reflect on CV and
Interview
Appendix Ethics form
COSHH/Risk assessment
CV (submitted to
supervisor)
Design Study Slides
(submitted to supervisor)
Supervisory meeting log (15% of assessment mark)
Complete the following table after each meeting, this may be in person, group or via
email communication. Include date, title, approx. duration, and key take home
messages as bullet points. The table can have additional rows added as you see fit
but do not change the column layout. Please see example in red.

Date of Meeting Title Approx. Key take home

Duration messages
1st Sept 2022 Example 30 mins 1. Complete the
table
2. Write up lab
book after
each session
3. Do not leave
the write up
to the end
Ethics and Health and Safety (10% of assessment mark)
Please write a 100-150-word summary reflecting on the ethics and health and safety
you have used during this project. Highlight the importance of why these elements
were carried out prior to the start of your project.
Write here (150 words max):
Project work: Data Collection and analysis (50% of module mark)
As part of your undergraduate project notebook, it is important that you keep a
record of project related aspects (as and when you do; however big or however
small). Keeping record (in real time) will help you to think deeper about the process,
reflect and learn from the experience, refer back to aspects over the project duration
and it will prove useful point of reference when it comes to finalising your project
write-up.
Note 1: Each time you do project related work on your own (i.e. background
research using specific search engines, thinking through design ideas, connecting
with other professionals for data collection aspects, working on ethical
considerations/application form and so forth) or project related training, COSHH
forms/Risk assessments; write up the work and date it so that you have a logical
progression of what you are doing, it is also important to ensure that you have a feed
forward statement that highlights what you intend to do next. You can use the
guidance provided by the University of Westminster, reflective writing library
guide to help guide what you include in your entries. 

Beginning of your project: Discuss with your supervisor what they would like to
see within the laboratory notebook and whether they wish for some data analysis to
go within the appendix.
Note: Include the date when you write this section. Include any evidence of work
from this phase if at all relevant and if you think necessary (e.g., examples of any
reading, data sheets, graphs, meta-analysis you may have carried out to better
understand aspects).
Example
Date: 1st September 2022
Intro: In this set of experiments, we were intending to look at the effect of X on Y
and Z outcomes.
Discussed goals of my project: To determine if x causes an increase in Y
Methods: Details of techniques used, software etc
Results: Describe the data obtained if appropriate highlight any % differences from
controls and statistical analysis
Conclusion
Feed Forward statement
Project progress summaries (15% of assessment mark)
You will submit 4 progress summaries over the project duration as detailed
below. These are to give you an idea as to whether you are keeping on track
following discussion with your supervisors. They will also highlight to you if you need
to increase your engagement on this module. Please note that every supervisor will
set their own deadlines as to what is expected form you, no two supervisors will
expect the same things at same time point. Please complete the following table
(100-200 words per summary).

Dates Summary
Example During the first 6 weeks I have met with my supervisor x times
in person, email or via a group. I have attended the relevant
sessions provided by the module team and looked at relevant
information related to the initial tasks that have been set. To
date I have been working on the following elements of my
project. These include x, y and z. I have found that x has been a
struggle this is due to the following reasons……, although I am
more confident now following discussions with my supervisor
and peers. Y has progressed well, and I have generated…..,
whilst Z is still to be started and will need to ensure that this is
completed prior to starting the next element.
SEM 1 Week
4-6
SEM 1 Week
10-12
SEM 2 Week
4-6
SEM 2 Week
10-12
Project impact and future ideas (5% of assessment mark)
Did you meet your final aim/s OR hypothesis/es for your undergraduate
project?

What impact do you think your research may have on society?

Note: From the days when you presented your project design during the oral
presentation, your aim/s OR hypothesis/es may have been tweaked (or may not
have changed)! In this section, succinctly remind yourself and your supervisor the
final confirmed version. For your own records and ease of finding later (should you
need), add the Design Study Slides you presented to your supervisor in Semester 1
as an attachment in the appendix.

Write here (150 words max):

Employability: CV and Interview Reflections (5% of assessment mark)
Please write a 100-150-word summary reflecting on your CV and interview
feedback, indicate how the skills you have developed through your degree will
support your further career aspirations.
CV and Interview summary:
Appendix (as directed by supervisor for submission)
1. Ethics form: Date of submission to supervisor (you may also upload it if you
wish)
2. COSHH and safety forms (As directed by supervisor): Date of submission to
supervisor (you may also upload if you wish)
3. CV and Application form: Date of submission to supervisor (you may also
upload if you wish)
4. Design study slides: Data of presentation/submission (you may also upload
these if you wish)