BMS5008 Academic Skills and Career Development As1 & As2 Assessment Brief 25-26

 Assessment Type:

Coursework

Level 5

Weighting  

 70%

Word Count 

 1750 (+10%)

Submission Date 

 November 10th

Submission Time  

15:00 

Module Leader 

Dr Thomas Graeme-Drury 

In this assessment, you will be expected to produce a 1,500-word critical essay (and a 250 word lay summary or infographic; a total of 1750 words) evaluating one of these controversial statements:

1. “The benefits of oral contraception outweigh the risks.”
2. “Psychedelics are the most effective treatment for depression.”
3. “Supplements are an effective way to manage one’s mental or physical health”
4. “Drugs like Ozempic are the most effective way to lose weight”

In your essay you should introduce the subject of debate, then write a balanced and critical discussion that evaluates a variety of contemporary scientific evidence supporting and refuting your chosen statement. You should draw your own conclusions using the evidence you present. Finally, you must include a maximum 250-word summary or infographic outlining your essay for a lay audience.

-Provide a thorough critical appraisal of at least one article that supports the statement, and one that challenges it. This should be naturally incorporated into the body of your essay (i.e. not presented as a separate subsection or bullet-points), and referred to in your lay summary/infographic.

-Produce a 250 word lay summary of your essay. The target audience for this lay summary should be non-expert adults. Alternatively, students may choose to instead produce an infographic that summarises their essay. This infographic should not contain more than 250 words or be larger than one side of A4, and should follow the same guidance for producing lay writing.

-Only reference recent (≤5 years old) scientific journal articles. No citations of e-books (e.g. StatPearls) or websites (e.g. NHS or WHO) should be used. Statements in the essay should be thoroughly supported by peer-reviewed literature and not anecdotal. (Students are reminded that this restriction does not necessarily apply to all other assessments during their course (e.g. citing seminal work); however, using up-to-date literature where possible is usually recommended.)

Assessment Type:

Coursework

Level

5

Weighting  

 30%

Word Count 

 6 minutes (6:30 max)

Submission Date:

 December 8th

Submission Time  

15:00 

Module Leader 

Dr Thomas Graeme-Drury 

Group video: ‘In-person’*

*This is just a classification – your video is not assessed in person

In groups of 4-5 students, you must produce a 6-minute-long video detailing one career in a biosciences-related field. You must provide examples of the specific duties and responsibilities of the role holder, their skill and training requirements, and their future prospects. The video should include a plan for how a student with a BSc (Hons) Biomedical Sciences degree would obtain this role (e.g., any further learning required, potential stepping-stone jobs) or become a competitive candidate based on the job specification (e.g. desired skills and experience, extracurricular volunteering). Good submissions will provide a comprehensive overview, while excellent videos will expand a detailed critical discussion to cover topics like future challenges the role holder might face, how the job interacts with adjacent roles within the organisation and beyond, and the potential for Continuing Professional Development – whilst referencing a range of sources.

Students can choose their group membership up until a deadline specified in the Module launch. After this deadline, any students that have not made the module leader aware of their preferred group membership will be assigned to groups randomly. Group membership will subsequently be published on the Moodle page, after which any submissions should adhere to the published document. Group sizes must consist of a minimum of 4, or maximum of 5 students.

Students with a valid disability support statement for anxiety can request permission to submit a video as an individual. Students found missing from their group submission will be awarded 0%.

-  The video should be no shorter than 5 minutes 30 seconds, and no longer than 6 minutes 30 seconds.

-   Every student in the group should contribute to and visually appear in the video in some form for at least a second (even in otherwise audio-only submissions).

-   Along with your submission, you should provide a form detailing each member’s contribution to the video. Only one member of the group is required to submit the files to Moodle.

-    A reference list must be added to the video, either as a word document to the Moodle submission point or as a slide in the video itself.