Last term finished with the final optional module, which for me was 'Glaciers in the climate system'. I was very excited for this module; I'd first learnt about glaciers during my A Levels and was probably the favourite part of my A Level course, then during my final year of undergrad I did a glaciers module and did very well in it. So I really wanted to maintain my good track record of studying glaciers. And I managed to do so! Our lecturer for the module was one of the most enthusiastic people I've met, and it really showed and paid off throughout the week. As a result, I was really focused throughout, especially during GIS practical sessions, which were taught brilliantly. In the end, thanks to the excellent teaching, I produced a piece of coursework that came back with a great grade!
The last two weeks of the easter break saw us go on the famous Glen Roy field trip in Scotland for ten days, with a focus on studying the most recent ice advance during the Lateglacial - the Loch Lomond Readvance. For the first six days, our lecturers took us on 'tour days' of the landscape, studying the landforms and sediments that provide the evidence for this time period. We were very lucky with the weather! The first three days were gloomy, but the rest of the trip was lovely sunshine and blue skies. Following this, we designed projects that we would undertake in small groups to constitute the main part of the coursework - a fieldwork project report. My group carried out sedimentology investigations and geomorphological mapping in Glen Roy, more specifically the Glen Turret valley. We did two days of field work followed by data presentation and analysis after the field trip, which we then each wrote up individually for our coursework. The second part of the coursework was to create a conference poster based on a topic that had been discussed as part of the trip, but separate to the projects we worked on for our reports. The focus of this was to identify an issue/gap in the research regarding the Loch Lomond Stadial in Scotland, and construct a research plan for addressing this problem. This was challenging, since it was probably only the second time (after Palaeoclimatology in first semester) we really had to put our thinking caps on and come up, individually, with a brand new project. That said, everyone's finished posters looked very impressive and seemed that every one of us had put a lot of work in to thinking up our ideas. Overall, the Glen Roy field trip was an incredible opportunity to widen our knowledge and to put theory in to practice in the field. Aside from the academic part of it, the trip was also great for us all getting to know one another better and bonding as a group, and we are certainly much closer because of it.
So, now that the Scotland coursework has been handed it, it's time to focus on the final part of the MSc - dissertations! Last week we gave presentations to members of the CQR (Centre for Quaternary Research, RHUL) proposing our project ideas. This was an incredibly scary thing to do, especially for those of us, including myself, not confident with public speaking. Despite this, it was yet another invaluable part of the course that I'm really glad we did. We were able to gain insightful and constructive feedback, and not only that, but it was the first time I, at least, experienced giving a presentation to that many people, and is a great confidence builder when you receive positive and constructive feedback, as all of us did.
So now it's a case of getting started! I'm very excited to start lab work; since doing my undergrad dissertation it's one of my favourite parts of doing new work. My project is addressing optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of marine sediments. A lot of my work is experimental, so whatever the results I get they will make for a very interesting study.
