Teaching and Learning at Nottingham
Your degree course is designed to exploit your curiosity for chemistry, to encourage you to express your ideas clearly and logically and to develop your approaches towards independent learning. We achieve this through a series of modular courses that deepen and broaden your previous knowledge and introduce you to topics that you may not have encountered at school or college. You will also take part in a series of weekly small-group tutorials that provide an opportunity for you to analyse critically the material that has been presented in lectures and laboratory classes. These meetings also ensure that you have grasped the key points of the lectures and that you fully understand the course material.
Laboratory experience
You will gain laboratory experience by attending practical classes that run for up to eight hours per week during the first year of your course, and which extend to 12 hours per week in the second and third years. These classes introduce you to the current synthetic and analytical approaches in chemistry and are held in modern, well-equipped and up-to-date laboratories.
Research projects
During their fourth year, MSci students are invited to join an active, world-leading research group within the School to contribute to projects that are at the cutting-edge of chemistry. You will be given greater independence and you will be responsible for driving your own project, although a postgraduate research student and an academic member of staff in your research group will always be close by to help.
Communication skills
We place a strong emphasis on developing your written and oral communication skills throughout your course at Nottingham. This usually involves small-group and individual project work that is assessed continuously. These projects aim to teach you how to research a problem and how to get your message across clearly, accurately and concisely, using modern bibliographic search tools, word-processing and presentation software. Such skills are always highly sought after by potential employers.
Assessment
Our courses are assessed in a variety of ways, including traditional written exams, coursework assignments, dissertations, computing assignments, essays and laboratory reports. The final degree classification is based on marks gained for the second and subsequent years of study.
Personal and Academic Tutors
While at Nottingham, you will be assigned a personal and academic tutor who will guide your studies and help you to select modules that match your interests and ambitions. Your tutor is your first port of call in the School if you have any problems or questions, and they will take an interest in your personal and academic development, offering you help, encouragement and guidance.
E-Learning
You will have access to a wide range of modern computing facilities and sophisticated software to support your course of study. The University is committed to an e-learning environment where you will: make regular contact with your tutors by email; browse course websites that reinforce material described in your lectures; use online discussion forums to discuss your course with your study group; and use presentation and wordprocessing software to prepare talks and reports.