Conservation and Recycling of Materials

MM 4 CRM 2011 - 2012

October 2011

Case Study: This case study makes up 20% of the module mark available. The assignment will be given to you by week 4 and will be required to be handed in by the 18th of November. Hand your work in at the faculty office. Please staple work with the mark-sheet given below and the standard cover-sheet. Do not use plastic wallets or files. Late work will be penalised at a rate of 5% absolute per working day late; the penalty will be strictly enforced. Coursework that is handed in on time will be returned to you on (or possibly before) the 5th of December in the revision class. Recently there has been much concern over the availability of certain materials, and the use of a material for a certain application is sustainable or not. There are obviously many factors which affect this such as: the availability of the ore, the demand for current and new markets, whether a material can be substituted by another more abundant material, and of course recycling/reuse of a material to ensure it remains within use rather than simply disposed of. Your case study needs to focus on an area or an issue which should be clearly reflected in the title and introduction of your case study. You may opt to focus on a particular material (e.g. lithium, rare-earth metals, crude oil), or you could focus on a particular product (e.g. electronics, transport or new energy technologies) and the materials that it is made from. Reports are to be typed to a strict format. (See attached sheet for formatting guide) Use A4 paper Title and author, centred, 14pt Times, bold. 25 mm margins all round. Main text, 12 point Times, fully justified, 1.5 line spacing. Blank line between paragraphs Diagrams / figures may be included as appropriate. References must be made using the style as indicated on the attached format guide. You may use Times 10pt for the references, single line spaced. THE CASE STUDY MUST NOT BE MORE THAN 3 SIDES INCLUDING DIAGRAMS, TABLES ETC. REFERENCES MAY BE LISTED ON A FOURTH SIDE. You will be penalised for not following this format - see assessment criteria. The purpose of a reference is to inform your reader of the origin (and probable reliability) of your information and of its date (i.e. how up-to-date it is): the bibliographical data given should enable your reader to trace the reference. Examiners very often regard the quality of the references as indicative of that of the overall work, and may consult the references even before the text. It is well worthwhile ensuring that your references are as complete and systematic as you can make them. Where possible, AVOID REFERENCING WEBPAGES as they are often unvetted, and the contents of a web page can be changed at anytime or even be removed. Referencing archived material will be awarded a higher grade than referencing unreliable webpages. Peer reviewed Journal articles are in general the best sources of information. 3 sides of A4 is not very long and thus you will have to be extremely selective about what you write. An example of an essay structure is given below for a study entitled Energy from Municipal Solid Waste. 1. Introduction: The amount and content of MSW. 2. The options for dealing with MSW - brief overview. 3. Energy from MSW - the options - how can it be done 4. Energy from MSW - the technical problems, e.g. grates, pollution 5. Is it worth it - is it the best option? Although the details of the structure will depend on the study you choose to do, each study should look critically at the topic and ask questions similar to number 5 above. Do not try to cover too much; a critical study is better than one which just lists lots of facts. Be focussed (there is nothing worse than a 3 page ramble with no obvious aim)- and state what you are attempting to achieve in the introduction. Make
J5 C CRM 1 Case Study Information

sure your title is focused tell me what you are looking at in detail (e.g. with the example above the title might be: Power generation from Municipal Solid Waste). These are individual not group exercises. Any plagiarism will be severely penalized. Plagiarism includes copying text or images generated by another student or copying text from another source. Quotes are allowed but should be clearly marked within the text and referenced. Exceeding the 3 sides of A4 limit (excluding references) will incur severe penalties. If you hand in a report with greater than 3 sides of the main study but less than 4 sides of A4, you will loose 30% absolute of the marks available. If you hand in a report with greater than 4 sides of A4, you will loose 60% absolute of the marks available. Work not typed will be subject to a penalty of 60% absolute of the marks available. A mark scheme is included on the last page of this document - read it carefully as it will give you a feel for what is required in the study.
Web of Knowledge and Sciencedirect.com You will be able to find references by searching the journals using the Web of Knowledge and / or Science Direct on the Internet. This allows you to search for journal articles with a certain combination of words in the title. Many journals can be downloaded from the internet. Check out e-journals through the Information Services (Library) webpages. Points of use - my experience. Search for words in title, abstract and keywords. Choose your years of searching (the system goes back to 1981). Be aware that some journals for which you will find references are not in the library - probably not worth getting these unless you can find them using the e-journals service (see above). As you scan through the titles, be selective - some titles obviously refer to a highly detailed article on some technical aspect of recycling - they may not always be as important as more general or policy type articles. Search carefully recycl* tyr*, tir* alumin* automo*,car, cars

pulls up the words recycled, recycle, recycling etc. pulls up both tyre, tyres and tire, tires (American spelling) pulls up both aluminium and aluminum (American spelling) pulls up automobile, automotive, cars etc.

Some searches will throw up heaps of references e.g. Search for waste AND fuel gives a large number of refs. However, on first scan you can see that a lot of articles are about nuclear fuel waste Modify the search waste AND fuel NOT nuclear - this eliminates all those with nuclear

J5 C CRM

Case Study Information

MM 4 CRM

Conservation and Recycling of Materials Case Study Assessment Sheet Marker: Andrew Spowage

Name Date Due: Date Received

18th November 2011 Mark

General comment on the work

Excellent

Very good

Good

Needs more work

Needs much more work

Interpretation of title and introduction Use of sources Logical development Overall understanding of topic New understanding Conclusion Followed format Spelling, grammar and syntax Within 3 sides of A4 ? Late ? Typed ?

10 15 15 30 5 15 0 10 Penalty Penalty Penalty

9 14 14 18

8 12 12 16 4

7 10 10 14

6 9 9 12 3

5 8 8 10

4 6 6 8 2

3 4 4 6

2 3 3 4 1

1 1 1 2

0 0 0 0 0

14

12 -1

10

9 -2

6 -5

1 -10

What the ratings mean - some examples

Interpretation of title and introduction: Excellent / very good shows sound grasp of the task and provides a clear outline of the scope of the study Good introduction rambles and scope not clearly defined Needs more/much more work launches straight in with no attempt to introduce and define the topic. Task may have been misunderstood. Use of sources Excellent / very good Good Needs more/much more work Logical development Excellent / very good Good Needs more/much more work Overall understanding of topic Excellent / very good Good Needs more/much more work New understanding Excellent / very good Good Needs more/much more work Conclusions Excellent / very good Good Needs more/much more work Spelling, grammar and syntax Excellent / very good Good Needs more/much more work

critical and wide use of relevant archival literature somewhat narrow range of sources used, some web references used little evidence of supportive reading - inadequate preparation relied heavily on web references

develops a logical argument and presents material and ideas clearly. could be better organised by sequencing material more appropriately fails to develop a clear theme or line of argument

well argued. Main issues explored and evaluated. some issues explored. Some analysis and critical evaluation. work is descriptive with no analysis.

Data from numerous sources are analysed together to bring new understanding to the topic. Data from numerous sources are compared, but no new insights delivered. Little or no comparison and/or compilation of results from different sources.

draws together case-study. Points justified previously. brief, but brings in no new material. brings in new material / not justified from what has gone before / none existent.

no problems few errors - greater care required many, intrusive errors. Spell checker not used!!