Sustainability in Construction Materials and Technology
(1) The subject of the report should be relevant to the programme that you are studying on, BSc Construction Engineering, but you can choose any aspect that is of interest to you. For instance, you can focus on an innovative area (such as electric vehicles, or energy efficient houses) or research something that is critical for your profession (e.g. earthquake engineering). (2) The length of your report should be 2,500 – 3,000 words (excluding abstract and references). (3) You must use Mendeley for citing references in the text and to create the reference list. Use a variety of references including journal papers, articles, industry reports, books etc., but make sure that that they are relevant and reliable. A screenshot of relevant references on your Mendeley DeskTop must be included in the Appendix. (4) The layout of the report must follow the following style: 1. Abstract 2. Contentpage 3. Lists of figures and tables (if appropriate) 4. Introduction 5. Mainbody(canincorporatesub-sections).Themainbodyshould incorporate items (5) and (6) described below. Use figures and tables if appropriate (these are not counted towards the word limit). 6. Conclusions 7. List of reference 8.Appendix(includingitem(7)describedbelow,andascreenshotofyour Mendeley Desktop showing relevant references) (5) Sustainability. Within the immediate concern of global climate change, overexploitation of non-renewable resources, environmental degradation and population growth, the costs associated with economic growth are resulting in a greater political awareness of sustainable development and environmental sustainability in general. Issues such as carbon neutral building, carbon capture, carbon sequestration, waste minimisation, use of renewable resources, sources of renewable energy are now in the mainstream public, government and scientific agendas. [unique_solution]Your report therefore should incorporate a discussion of the range of relevant sustainability issues for your topic. This can be done from an energy, resources, or environmental perspective and should also discuss or elude to potential solution strategies being developed. This can be done under a separate heading if you wish, or incorporated throughout the report, but either way should be the equivalent of one page of text (approximately 550 words). (6) The purpose of the report is not to just provide desсrіptive information but also to explain how things were done or why they were done, and therefore demonstrate an understanding of the information you are presenting. This therefore requiresyou to be able to perform a critical appraisal of the information you are gathering and using. (7) Consequently there will be a requirement to produce a half page critique (approximately 300 words) of one of your report’s references and include this as an appendix to the main body of your report (this is not counted towards the word limit). Therefore choose one reference from your reference list and based on this reference answer the following questions: (i) What was the basis for choosing this reference to include in your report? (ii) Do the authors reference many other publications (e.g. are they narrow or broad in the extent of publications they consider)? (iii) Is this reference cited by many other authors, or is it generally ignored by other people who work in this area? Give the actual number of citations (obtained from Web of Knowledge or Google Scholar). (iv) How did you judge its value or reliability of the information it gives? (v) If it is a technical paper, how did you judge the accuracy of this information, data and any physical understanding or interpretation that stems from this? Assessment Criteria: The breakdown of marks awarded will be distributed as follows: Content An evaluation of the research effort, comprehension and interpretation of the subject of the report: •Has the student found the main relevant and recent literature/information? • Have the student been able to produce a good synthesis of the literature? • Does the student discuss reliability of various sources of information? • Is it clear what was learned from the literature? 35% Abstract Summary that is helpful in describing the report: •Is the Abstract accessible and understandable, using short sentences and simple language? • Does it adequately summarise the report? • Is it a ‘stand-alone’ document? • Is the length no more than 300 words? 35% Organisation and explanation The structure of the report should be logical, with a natural flow of information linked in a logical way. •Are the desсrіptions and explanation clear and thorough? • Does the report include unnecessary information? • Does the report show an appropriate structure? • Do main sections and sub-sections have clear relevant titles? 10% Presentation The quality of layout, figures, use of headings, abstract, content page, list of tables and figures, page numbers use of language; visual quality of the complete document. • Is the length of the report, excluding title page, contents list, appendices, etc. within the range of 3,000 words? • Is the contents list helpful? Is there a list of figures? Is there a list of tables? • Do the language and style make the dissertation easy to read? •Are figures and tables clear and do they give added- value? 10% Referencing Range of references and referencing style: • Does the student use correct referencing within text? • Have a student used a variety of sources, e.g. books, reports, journals, internet websites? • Does the student use Mendeley for importing references (have the screenshot to evidence this been provided)? 10% Critical review component The ability to critically compared, evaluate and criticise ideas found: • Is there evidence of any critical review of the references within the text (separate to the critical review page in the appendix)? •How well does a half page critiques answers the questions in section (7)? 15% Sustainability Discussion How well does it fulfil the desсrіption provided in section (5)? 15% size 11 font (Hide)