Course memo. Degree project in. Environmental Strategies, Advanced level (AG280X)

Transcription

1 - 1-20/10/2014 Course memo Degree project in Environmental Strategies, Advanced level (AG280X)

2 - 2-20/10/2014 Contents 1. What is Environmental strategies research? What is a degree project in Environmental strategies? Learning outcome Main content Prerequisites Coordinator and examiners Degree project in a company or organization Confidentiality Your report Language Report format Plagiarism Grading Work process

3 - 3-20/10/ What is Environmental strategies research? The field of strategic environmental research encompasses analyses of long-term solutions and developing knowledge concerning strategic environmental problems. The subject is at the point of intersection between environmental issues, societal change and technological development. Strategically important environmental issues are at the same time serious and require long-term solutions, may it be in a global or national context, for an industrial branch, enterprise, or public authority. The width of the research area is illustrated by its many methodological approaches: Future studies, Tools for environmental assessment and management, and Processes of change. The area of future studies applies different scenario techniques such as back casting and external scenarios. The concept of Sustainable development, both in ecological, social, and economic terms, is an important starting point. The area of environmental assessment and management focuses on the application, development, and evaluation of different tools for environmental systems analysis, e.g. life cycle assessment (LCA), strategic environmental assessment (SEA), and life cycle costing (LCC). The area of processes of change encompasses behavioral studies, life styles, and policy instruments and measures. Policy instruments and measures act as a bridge between future studies and the current situation. To reach a sustainable future, policy instruments are required, the impacts of which can be studied by means of various tools for environmental systems analysis.

4 - 4-20/10/ What is a degree project in Environmental strategies? Rules and guidelines that are common to all master degree projects at KTH are available at: Learning outcome As an overall aim the Master student should learn about the relations between environmental issues, societal change and technological development, and get insights about how human activities and behavior, existing or changed, may affect the environment. Upon completion of this course, the student shall be able to: apply relevant knowledge and abilities, within the main field of study, to a given problem within given constraints, even with limited information, independently analyze and discuss complex inquiries/problems and handle larger problems on the advanced level within the main field of study reflect on, evaluate and critically review one s own and others scientific results document and present one s own work with strict requirements on structure, format, and language usage identify one s need for further knowledge and continuously develop one s own knowledge Main content The degree project shall consider a relevant problem within the area of Environmental Strategies Research. The extent of the work should correspond to at least five months of full time studies. The work effort includes the development of a detailed project and time plan, literature studies, and to conduct the proposed investigation and analysis. The results are presented in a written report and orally at one of the seminars for master theses provided by the department. If the work is done at a company, it can also be required to present the work orally there as well. During the thesis work period, an opposition should be conducted on another student's thesis work.

5 - 5-20/10/ Prerequisites Students are not admitted before completing the following: Master students (120 hp): minimum 60 hp completed Program students (270 hp): minimum 210 hp Program students (300 hp): minimum 240 hp Carrying out a Master Degree project in Environmental Strategies Research requires basic knowledge of major environmental problems and their causes, e.g. Naturresursteori (AE1101). Depending on the project, it can also be required to have completed some other elective courses. A thesis focusing on Environmental Systems Analysis normally requires Program - Environmental Engineering and Sustainable Infrastructure - Sustainable Technology - Natural Resources Engineering - or equivalent Knowledge on environmental systems analysis tools, e.g. - MJ2680 Miljösystemanalys - AE1501 Miljösystemanalys för samhällsbyggnad - AE2501 Environmental Impact Assessment - AG2800 Life Cycle Assessment - AG2801 Environmental Assessment of Buildings - or equivalent A thesis focusing on Planning and Sustainable Development normally requires: Program - Spatial Planning, or - Urban Planning and Design - or equivalent Knowledge on planning theory and scenario methods, e.g. - AG2171 Futures Studies and Forecasts - or equivalent

6 - 6-20/10/ Course coordinator, examiners, supervisors, and administrator The main examiner has main responsibility for the degree project course. There are several examiners, all of which may have the responsibility of examining and grading the degree project. Main examiner Anna Björklund, Course coordinator Elisabeth Hochschorner, Delegated examiners Anna Björklund, Göran Finnveden, Mattias Höjer, Åsa Moberg, Cecilia Håkansson, José Potting, Viveka Palm, s To perform a Master degree project at the Division of Environmental Strategies Research (FMS), you need a supervisor at the division. Both senior researchers and PhD students may act as supervisors. If you have an external supervisor, at for instance a company, you still need to have a supervisor at the division. Course administrator Joanna Leksell (joanna.leksell@abe.kth.se) handles all course administration, such as course registration and reporting of final grade.

7 - 7-20/10/ Degree project in a company or organization When degree projects are performed in a company or organization, it is important that the company/organization, the student and the supervisor share the same view of the purpose of a degree project and the responsibilities of those involved. One way to avoid misunderstandings is to sign the statement of agreement, which is available at the course page in Bilda.

8 - 8-20/10/ Confidentiality The master thesis is part of the student s degree and will be presented in writing and orally in front of an audience. Higher education institutions are authorities covered by the principle of public access, which means limited possibilities to keep student essays/master thesis confidential. This means that the report which is presented, assessed, and graded may not be confidential. It is thus important during the planning of the master thesis to consider whether it is likely to contain information that may not be disseminated. While KTH has no responsibility to sign any kind of confidentiality agreement, the student is free to do so with the company/organization on his/her own. It is possible for the student to write an academic thesis with de-identified information and a special report for the company/organization. The publicly available thesis must however contain all the information necessary to assess and grade its quality. If the potential results should not be made public at all, it is perhaps not suitable for the assignment to be carried out as an essay/master thesis. Master theses must be registered in the KTH publication database DiVA, including a minimum of title, author, and abstract. The full thesis must also be stored in DiVA (for archiving purposes), but does not need to be published on-line.

9 - 9-20/10/ Your report Language The thesis can be written in Swedish or English. A summary/abstracted should be included in both languages. Report format We have no official guide for the layout of the report, referencing system etc. You have a lot of freedom in designing your own thesis. Our only requirement is that it should be acceptable in a scientific context. Plagiarism Plagiarism is defined as submitting someone else s work as your own. Text that you use from other authors must be cited with a reference. Ask your supervisor if you are uncertain about how to use references. Read more at: ?programme=ald-ma All degree projects theses are tested to be sure that no plagiarism has occurred.

10 /10/ Grading Grading scale: A, B, C, D, E, Fx, F Graded elements are: - Work process: Ability to independently plan and carry out the thesis work, within the scheduled time plan. Ability to take supervision. - Thesis content: Problem formulation, methodology, analysis, evaluation. Adequate scope. - Presentation: Written and oral at final seminar. Compulsory, but not graded: - Opposition: Oral opposition of another student s thesis at his/her final seminar. Please read more in the KTH regulations:

11 /10/ Work process All degree projects are different, but generally follow the same structure. The following gives an overview of what you need to do to complete your thesis. Step in the work process Approval with program coordinator If the degree project Environmental Strategies (AG280X) is not the one primarily assigned to your program, you must make sure that a it will be accepted as part of your final degree from KTH. If it is not within the same main subject area as your degree, your program coordinator must formally agree to make an exception. Contact/ discuss with Own program coordinator. Fulfillment of prerequisites Make sure that you fulfill the requirements to be admitted to the course AG280X (included in this document). This is formally the responsibility of the examiner of the course, but you should not start planning your thesis unless you do. Decide on specific thesis topic There are many different ways in which you can find Master degree project. Proposals may be formulated by the student, by the supervisor, by a company, or by some other organization. Course coordinator Never proceed with the planning of your degree project without discussing with the course coordinator and finding a supervisor. Find a supervisor If the topic was not already defined by a supervisor at FMS, at this point you need to find a supervisor at FMS. If you have an external supervisor (outside KTH, at for instance a company), you also need a supervisor at FMS. The course coordinator can help you find a supervisor. Course coordinator Brief thesis proposal Write a brief thesis proposal (1-2 pages) (rationale, research question/hypothesis, methods, expected outcome). Discuss it with your supervisor. When you have agreed on your proposal, your thesis work can be registered.

12 /10/2014 Step in the work process Apply and register for degree project course AG280X Pick up the application form at ABE Education Office (Drottning Kristinas väg 30). Fill in the form and hand in to the course coordinator (Elisabeth Hochschorner), or to the course administrator (Joanna Leksell) with a copy to the coordinator. You will not be admitted unless you fulfill the requirements for being admitted to the course. Your examiner is responsible for checking that the requirements are fulfilled. Contact/ discuss with Course administrator (Joanna Leksell) /examiner Own program coordinator You also need to check with your own program coordinator if any additional forms may be needed in your case. For instance, if your program is coordinated by another department, you may need an approval to perform you degree project at this department. You need to be registered as an active student (studieanmälan/terminsregistrering) while performing your degree project. This is normally done at My Pages ( Mina sidor ) and needs to be done every semester. Project plan Before starting your research, you should plan it carefully by writing a project plan, containing a preliminary outline of your report and a time plan. You and your supervisor may then use it to follow up your progress, and revise the plan if necessary. One of the graded elements will be whether you manage to plan your work and follow your time table. If problems out of your control arise, make sure to inform your supervisor and revise your time plan. Preliminary outline of the report - Background to the problem - Rationale of the study (why is this study important) - Overall aim and specific objectives - Research questions/hypothesis - Scope - Theory and methods - Anticipated results, contribution Time and activities plan. This may include planned dates and time on task for: - Planned supervision meetings - Research activities - Deliverables/progress milestones - Time for opposition

13 /10/2014 Step in the work process - Time for defense Statement of agreement When degree projects are performed in a company or organization, a statement of agreement between the student, the company/ organization, and the supervisor should be signed. This is to ensure that they share the same view of the purpose of a degree project and the responsibilities of those involved. Take notes! The student should take dated working and meeting notes. Also save correspondence. It will help you and your supervisor to follow up your work. Thesis research process (examples) Performing a research project is a non-linear process, several steps may be iterated, and even the initial research question may be reformulated after some time. Contact/ discuss with The process may contain the following activities. The corresponding sections should be included in your report, not necessarily in this order. - Review of research front, literature review - Problem formulation - Identify overall aim and specific objectives - Formulate detailed research questions/hypothesis - Determine delimitations (what s included, what s not?) - Define your theoretical framework - Select methodological approach - Collection of data - Analysis - Discussion of results/findings - Draw conclusions Writing your report It s recommended that you work on your report continually, as part of the research process. The thesis can be written in Swedish or English. A summary should be included in both languages. We have no official guide for the layout of the report, referencing system etc. You have a lot of freedom in designing your own thesis. Our only requirement is that it should be acceptable in a scientific context.

14 /10/2014 Step in the work process Contact/ discuss with Opposition of a fellow student s thesis at final seminar You are required to read and make an opposition of a fellow student s Master thesis. It is recommended that you do this before finalizing and presenting your own thesis about half way through own thesis work/writing. Course coordinator Examiner Defense of own thesis at final seminar Agree with your supervisor when it is time to present. Send an to the coordinator of AG200X (exjobb-fms@abe.kth.se) with cc to your supervisor, at least four weeks before the up-coming seminar week. Include the following information: Course coordinator Student Your full name address and phone number where you can be reached Preliminary title of your degree project Name of supervisor Language (English/Swedish)? Ask for the name of an opponent. The coordinator will then provide you with a name and to a suitable opponent. The opponent will also be notified. Then you will have to: Set a date when you, the supervisor, the examiner and the opponent can attend. Send an to the coordinator with the date. The coordinator will then book a room and notify you. NOTE: You need to be registered as an active student (studieanmälan/terminsregistrering) when presenting your degree project. This is normally done at My Pages ( Mina sidor ) and needs to be done every semester. Submission of final draft before seminar Submit your final draft one week before the seminar to: - Opponent - - Examiner Your supervisor will make a plagiarism check of the report. The report that you submit is the one that is graded. After the seminar you will receive written feedback from your supervisor with a preliminary grade and necessary amendments. Revision of final draft After defending your thesis at the final seminar, you will receive written comments on the report along with a preliminary grade from

15 /10/2014 Step in the work process your supervisor and examiner. Contact/ discuss with To receive the preliminary grade, you may be required to do some final revisions. The revision should be completed within three weeks from receiving comments. When submitting your final revised report, you need to append a list of corrections, responding to the comments, explaining how and where in the text amendments were made to the report. Plagiarism check The thesis must be checked for plagiarism before final approval. Upload your thesis in Bilda/AG280X/Assignments. It will be automatically checked for plagiarism. Approval of final report Your supervisor and the examiner should approve of the final revised version of your report. Report number and front page template Ask Joanna Leksell for - Report number to your thesis. - Front page template. This must be used to make sure all the necessary information is included., examiner Course administrator (Joanna Leksell) Reports in English must have abstract and title in Swedish too. Submission of final report your final report (incl. report number and using front page template) in pdf-format to Joanna Leksell and your supervisor. Course administrator (Joanna Leksell) Joanna Leksell will print a copy to be stored in the archives. Publish thesis on-line in DiVa Master theses are not printed, but published on-line in pdf-format. You are responsible for uploading your thesis in Academic Archive Online (DiVA). Information on how to upload your thesis: You! NOTE: It is important that you choose the right organization: Environmental Strategies. Course administrator will check the uploaded information and have it published. Inform administrator of final grade The supervisor is responsible for informing the administrator (Joanna Leksell), with a copy to the course coordinator (exjobb- Responsibility of supervisor

16 /10/2014 Step in the work process by when your thesis is completed. The following should be included in the - Final grade - Date of seminar - Date of final approval - Name of supervisor at KTH - Name of examiner - Title of report in Swedish - Title of report in English Report final grade Your final grade will be reported when: - Your supervisor has provided Joanna Leksell with the necessary information (above). - You have completed a final version of your report (report number and front page template). - You have registered your thesis correctly in DiVA and informed Joanna Leksell about this. - Joanna Leksell has approved of all provided information and the registration in DiVa. Contact/ discuss with Course administrator (Joanna Leksell)