Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

A2 research coursework

So I was reading through my report trying to see if it was done or not and also looking through the mark scheme. I notied a section called "Analysis and interpretation" in the mark scheme.

I'm not sure if I have any "analysis" in my report. It's just really about the life cycle of stars and supernovae. However I do have a section of calculations where I go through various things to do with fusion in stars, working out the energy two hydrogen ions will need to fuse, the predicted number of ions with this energy in the sun, the energy given out by each fusion reaction using E = mc^2.

Does this count as "analysis"? Is it enough? Or should it be some sort of table of data that I'd need to glean meaning from?

Also, it says the report must "show a context eg social, historical, economic or environmental". Seeings as my report concerns the inner workings of stars, which are a long way away from society, history, economics and the environment, how can I do this? I've thought maybe doing a little piece finding out what would happen if a supernova went off near to our planet and what the chances of this happening are, would this work?

Exam board is OCR B btw.

Reply 1

teachercol

Fusion on earth - controlled or uncontrolled - has a heck of lot of social, historic, economic and environmental consequences!!!

Reply 2

Kolya

catzrin

Also, it says the report must "show a context eg social, historical, economic or environmental".

Governmental bull****.

Reply 3

seanw

I ****ing hate this coursework.

Reply 4

Drummy

Here's a checklist I give to my students

A2 Research Report Checklist

As well as producing a worthwhile, interesting, topical, entertaining, well presented, logically structured report (about 20 sides long) there are a number of “hoops” you must jump through. If you don’t you are in danger of losing a lot of marks.

The Beginning
I have a title page which includes my name
I have included a planning sheet
I have a contents page with page numbers
I have a summary at the beginning (about 200 words)
I have an introduction (about 1 page)

The Report
I start each section on a new page
I have at least 4 sections
I have included lots of A level standard physics
I have gone into quite a bit of depth in at least 2 sections
I have not included anything I don’t understand
I have used diagrams, pictures, tables, graphs in my report
I have NOT cut and pasted from the internet
I use letters in brackets to indicate where I got certain information from (referencing)

The Analysis (at least 2 pages)
I have outlined the main findings / conclusions of my report
I have discussed what I think / feel are the main issues
I have compared different techniques / methods / views
I have discussed how different areas of physics work together in this field

Sources
I have at least 7 sources
I have a range of sources, NOT just websites
I have included the following information for each source in a table:
• Its title (NOT just a URL)
• What it is / why is it there / what is its purpose
• Who produced it / maintains it
• What information I got from it
• How useful it was
• A comment on its reliability, e.g. might it be biased, do you find contradictions
Each source has a letter which I use for referencing in the body of the report

Reply 5

catzrin

Is it true I'll get marked down for going much over 4000 words?

Reply 6

pancake

i hate this coursework! mine is on mri scans and luckily theres quite a bit of information on it. its due in in 2 days and i have successfully completed 256 words. score.