Honours Level 4 Projects 2024–2025
Introduction
All B.Sc., M.A. and M.Sci. students at Honours Level 4 with a mathematics component in their degree programme are required to carry out project work worth 20 credits.
Subject to any additional rules in their other subject, students on a joint degree programme with mathematics can only do one project at level 4, in either maths or their other subject.
The two project types
There are two options to choose from:
• In a Standard Project a student works independently but under regular supervision by a member of staff on an appropriately chosen mathematical topic that they learn from textbooks and other suitable sources and then present in a 25 page long report.
• In an Ambassador Scheme Project, a student interested in school teaching visit a primary or secondary school and design and deliver a mathematical activity there. Afterwards they write a 15-20 page report (up to a maximum of 20 pages).
Aims
The aim of the Standard Projects is to provide experience of independent working on an appropriately chosen mathematical topic.
Intended Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course students will be able to
• Study independently a mathematical topic in depth and produce a written account of it.
• Demonstrate skills in the written presentation of mathematical material, including the use of LATEX or other appropriate mathematical software.
• Effectively use written and other sources of mathematical knowledge.
• Effectively organise a timetable involving the delivery on time of a substantial report based on independent research.
• Integrate the knowledge obtained in lecture courses and from other sources in order to produce an extended piece of writing.
Topics and allocation
A list of projects offered by our academics will be available at the beginning of September. An online survey will then be sent to all 4H students and all students doing a Maths project should enter their top 7 choices from those offered. The survey link will be distributed via email. The deadline for returning all choices will be around 1–2 weeks after the project list is circulated and students are encourage to discuss potential projects with supervisors. Allocation of projects will take place using an optimisation algorithm that takes into account student preferences and supervisor capacity and availability. Therefore it follows that there is a definite chance that not everyone will get their top choices! So your last option should be a topic you would be happy to work in. The algorithm will run just before the start of the academic year and the students will be informed of their allocations promptly. Students who do not respond to the survey will be allocated based on project/supervisor availability and will get no say in the choice. So it is in your interest to respond to the survey before the deadline.
Overview
Level and approach. The mathematical level in the project should be at least at the standard of a Level 4 Honours course. The student should decide the topic after consulting with the supervisor. The project can be to write a detailed mathematical account building to a key result, or it can instead be to present a range of examples for such a result. It can be a survey, comparing ideas, or to investigate mathematical, physical, biological problems or others that use mathematical methods. A project may involve substantial computer programming, but these have to be embedded into a mathematical framework.
Originality. The project is not required to contain original results, the material can be collected from textbooks, mathematics journals, the web and other sources. However, projects must demonstrate originality in the form. of presentation and could involve own work for example in the form. of the independent computation of concrete examples that illustrate the general theory described.
Overlap with lecture courses. The content of a project must not overlap significantly with courses or other work undertaken by the student, such as summer projects or projects written in Level 3.
Timeline
Term 1
At the beginning of Term 1 every student has to contact their supervisor in order to arrange regular supervision. Neither the supervisor nor the Head of Level 4 will contact a student to trigger the supervision process, although Advisers of Study are encouraged to make sure their advisees have managed to arrange regular supervision.
During Term 1, students working under a particular supervisor will have group supervision, regularly meeting to discuss their progress as a group. During this period, the group will carry out work on the broad mathematical background underlying specific projects to diverge to individual specific project topics by the end of Term 1.
As a guideline, every student is entitled to and should aim at receiving roughly 10 contact hours of supervision/feedback during the academic year, the majority of which should happen in Term 1.
An interim report should be submitted by email to the supervisor in November. This report should be no longer than one single side of A4 and contain at least:
• one paragraph summarising your understanding of the background material and your progress so far
• one paragraph detailing your plans for the remainder of the project.
Term 2
The second term is to be devoted to writing the report. Meetings with the supervisor should be brief and to address final questions.
Draft reports of the Standard Projects are to be submitted directly to the supervisors in January. Students will receive feedback within two weeks. The drafts can be incomplete for which there will be no penalty. It is more important that the feedback opportunity is not missed.
The final reports for both types of projects have to be submitted in March. The details of the submission process will be posted to Moodle.
Formative assessment
Regular meetings. Students should meet their supervisor at least once every two weeks. The supervisor will answer questions, suggest and explain the next steps, and discuss and comment on the progress.
Term 1 meetings will be primarily group meetings to work through background material. The duration and form. of Term 2 meetings will be adapted to suit individual preferences but supervisors will be mindful that that granting excessive supervision to one student means disadvantaging others.
Throughout the project, supervisors will set out clearly their expectations for the students. Students are highly encouraged to ask questions. For questions that request assistance with tasks that the supervisor think they should be able to carry out independently, the supervisors will explain this to the students and then give them the time and chance to meet the expectations.
Draft report. Students may submit a draft report (see previous section) in electronic form. to their supervisor. Supervisors will read and comment on this, and provide detailed feedback within two weeks. The draft does not need to be anywhere close to the final report, but the structure should be planned and the aims and goals of the project should be clearly formulated.
When the supervisor reads the draft, they will make general comments and suggestions for, say, more examples or less detail. They might not make detailed corrections or editing, though, but obviously students may ask for help with making the corrections.
Summative assessment
Format. The report must be at most 25 pages A4 in length, word processed in 12 pt type using the LATEX template provided on Moodle, and must include:
• A title page containing the project title, student’s name and matriculation number and the supervisor’s name.
• An abstract summarising the topic and content of the project and a table of contents.
• The main body of the report which should usually begin with an introduction
• A bibliography.
Project reports must not exceed the page limit in the main body of the report - that is, the front matter, bibliography etc. does not count towards this page limit. Where appropriate, additional material (e.g. computer code or data tables) may be included in the form. of appendices that markers may ignore. If the report requires including a large amount of diagrams and figures in the main body, exceptions from the page limit may be made after consultation with the supervisor and the Head of Level 4 who will inform. the second marker.
The aim of these page limits is to protect markers from excessive marking duties as well as students from excessive expectations of the supervisor or themselves.
Content and style. The main body should begin with an introduction which gives a brief overview of the project and states its aims and objectives and also the intended readership. It can also include information about notation used or any prerequisites one is assuming.
A natural choice of readership are the peer students, so that one assumes the reader is familiar with the mathematics taught in the first three years of our Honours Programme, while all definitions and results that go beyond that are introduced and explained.
Structuring the project is important and will be assessed. The project should be meaningfully divided at least into sections with well chosen titles. The writing style. should be consistent and concise.
Originality. In the declaration, which will be signed electronically when the project is uploaded onto Moodle, students affirm that the project is their own work and that they have read and understood the University and School Regulations on Plagiarism. Students will also be asked to agree that the project can be used by the School for teaching, recruitment and other aspects of its work.
The student will obviously be using books, the internet and other references, but a lot of care must be taken to cite other people’s work when it is used. The aim of the project is to assimilate material from various sources and produce a coherent piece of work that is in the student’s own words and brings their own critical faculties to bear on the topic. Further information on plagiarism will be provided by the supervisor or the Head of Level 4 on request.
Submission and marking
The final report is marked independently by the supervisor and one other member of staff. In case the two markers disagree in their assessment there will be a mediation process. Marking is reviewed by the External Examiner.
The marking scheme used is published on Moodle, and students are encouraged to study it in detail before or while writing the report in order to understand the criteria that will be assessed.
Submission is via the Moodle course page. It will be possible to upload the report multiple times. At the time of the deadline the final version uploaded will be the final submission. These projects will be checked for plagiarism using a standard plagiarism software and the results will be available to students if they upload their report before the deadline. There will be a limit for the file size that ensures we can send projects by email, so keep the resolution of images reasonable.
No submissions will be allowed after the final submission deadline unless this has been agreed.