Extended Project Qualification

[brema]

Hi all,

 

I've decided to do the Extended Project Qualification along side my A levels. For those not familiar with it, it's a freestanding qualification with UCAS points equivalent to one AS level and the student picks a topic to either produce an extended essay or a "product" (report/video/performance/software etc) and a repost detailing the process.

 

At the minute I'm a bit stuck as to what to do for my project, I want to do it on a industry-related topic but specialist advice is a bit hard to come by at my college so I'm on my own really. The best I've come up with so far is along the lines of "Design a sound installation for a (imaginary) venue". This could cover many aspects from budget to equipment and interconnection.

 

I suppose the question is "what would you do?", although any input would be gratefully received

[Jivemaster]

Sort out a project that your tutor can guide you through. You really need to ensure that you will get full marks for your project not wander off topic through lack of guidance.

[paulears]

These are not really that useful as they can become rather pointless and disjointed - or sometimes just used as filler - certainly not as good on the CV as a dedicated study subject. There are thing that you have to be taught - and they're rather dull.

 

The taught element is likely to include:

• any skills or techniques that will be required for the safe and effective execution of the project which are not part of the candidate’s course of study.

e.g. safe laboratory or workshop technique, professional codes of practice, ethical guidelines, research methodology.

• ICT skills that will enhance the production of the report and/or the development of the project covering research, analysis and execution

• research skills including the ability to search for and identify suitable sources of information and prior research or relevant work already undertaken

• project management skills including time, resource and task management

• in the case of a performance, production or artefact, the format and content of rehearsal notes, initial sketches or other working documents in the stages of production

• the format and structure of accepted academic forms of research report to include abstract, introduction, background research, further research content with all sources cited, discussion, conclusion, references, including the evaluation of sources

• Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills, Functional Skills and Key Skills (see Section 3).

 

On top of this there's a fair bit of paperwork for you and your teachers. It's internally marked, and then externally moderated.

 

Your explanation that its a

the student picks a topic to either produce an extended essay or a "product" (report/video/performance/software etc) and a repost detailing the process.

is not quite what it really is.

 

Best of luck!

[Simon Lewis]

Or, to borrow from one of the great bands of our times,

 

"it's not what you do, it's the way that you do it"...

[mar]

I feel I should stand up for the Extended Projects - working as I do for the school who pioneered them.

 

You will get as much out of an extended project as you put in it - they can be "pointless and disjointed" or they can be well informed and interesting, it really depends on the student. I am told that Universities are quite keen on them as they demonstrate independant learning and if done well are effectively mini dissertations.

 

I agree with Paul that they must contain a taught element but more importantly they should incorporate an element of group discussion. You will find both of these difficult if your teachers have not got any knowledge of the area you are proposing to write about and if you are the only person covering that area.

 

Also it is vital that your teacher has knowledge of your topic so that they can advise you on how you could improve it and equally importantly so that they can mark it fairly - how can they know if you have written something sensible if they don't understand it?

 

In conclusion, I would think very carefully and discuss with your teachers what topics they will be able to help you towards - you might be better off moving towards a less technical title, perhaps on the effect that a good sound design can have on an audience or something like that. That way you can bring in your technical knowledge but can mix it with audience interviews, studies of productions seen, perhaps an interview with a professional sound designer. This will be far more accessable to the average reader and your teacher will hopefully be able to help more (assuming they are a drama teacher).

 

I hope that helps, or at least make sense.

 

I feel I should add that this post is my personal opinion and does not reflect the opinion of my employer. I have no specific knowledge of extended projects, just my own observations of students undertaking them within the drama department.

 

Michael

[paulears]

Michael - tut tut - that's a big (but probably sensible) cop-out at the end.

 

You cannot stand up for them if you have no knowledge of them!

 

I realise why you have to say that, but being honest about this. If you do think they are worth doing, the last para wipes out the good stuff!

 

My concern is that in schools with a less than competent subject teacher, the very problems you mention could be major ones. If you have an expert subject teacher, the process should be painless, but if the subject teacher is only two pages ahead of the kids in the spec/syllabus then the content of the students work could be unmarkable as it requires specialist knowledge.

 

This bit worries me. As the teacher is awarding internally, there could be major problems validating their grades in the moderation process. On top of this - who would actually moderate it? If it's added to say, drama - and as in this case, the student wants to do technical - then we're talking about much deeper levels of technical expertise than the drama teacher may have. I've had personal experience of this where I was verifying work that had received top grades but the student's work was fundamentally wrong in many areas. The student was doing the lighting unit and had totally misunderstood the physics, terminology and operational style of the kit they were using.

 

The Freshnells(sic) had goboes fitted to project patterns on cyclerama(sic) Tungsten Halion (sic) bulbs are used because the contain chemicals to make them brighter.

 

This sentence sticks in my head for some reason. It was clear that the student had gained all their knowledge on their own, misunderstood a great deal, but the teacher had been very impressed. What happens with an extended project like this? Who councils the Councillors?

 

Personally, I'm not too sure about these qualifications. I can see how they allow someone with better ability in a chosen field to demonstrate deeper knowledge - but it's (in my view) too dependent on the teachers - who in many schools teaching A Levels - are NOT specialists and will be out of their depth, but perhaps see these as a simple way to get students better marks.

 

In effect, it's the opposite of BTEC - it's self-generated work without any specific marking criteria, just banded impressionable statements. No mention at all about any validity checking of actual data. A system open to error and randomised marks depending on the subject skills of the moderator and internal examiner.

 

Who tests the testers?

[charl.ie]

I am about half way through my extended project, the title of which is "To what extend has the use of the microprocessor within control technology improved the quality of lighting displays?"

Remember that the content of your project counts for remarkably little (<40% I think), and it is the process and the research that gets you the marks.

[Matthew Robinson]

I didn't do the extended project, but I went to a few presentations, and they all seemed to be extensions of class work- eg: my friend was studying history, and his course was about Russia/Germany from about 1880-1950. He did EP on The Treaty of Versailles (sp?), which he covered in classwork, but (AFAIK) went into it a lot more deeply. Everyone else's was a similar thing - nobody went off into a subject that the teachers didn't know about.

 

Similarly, when I did my GCSE Electronic Products, we had to build an electronic dice, and I decided (in the infinite wisdom that all 15/16 YOs have) that I would build one with a 7-segment display. It went badly wrong, because I had no real idea of what I was doing- adding logic to the outputs of 7-segment display drivers doesn't work. I realised what I should have done - used a binary counter to count 0-9; added a comparitor to reset it at 5 (so I had a 0-5 counter); used a binary adder to add 1 (so 1-6 counter) and finally decoded it so that it counted 1-6 on the dice. Thankfully, because of my written work and my explanation of exactly why it was so difficult to do, I managed to get full marks and an A* overall.

 

The point to this, frankly long winded, post is that you should never do something that is outside your teacher's comfort zone if it is important to your grade

[xandersears]

Also it is vital that your teacher has knowledge of your topic so that they can advise you on how you could improve it and equally importantly so that they can mark it fairly - how can they know if you have written something sensible if they don't understand it?

My concern is that in schools with a less than competent subject teacher, the very problems you mention could be major ones. If you have an expert subject teacher, the process should be painless, but if the subject teacher is only two pages ahead of the kids in the spec/syllabus then the content of the students work could be unmarkable as it requires specialist knowledge.

I didn't do the extended project, but I went to a few presentations, and they all seemed to be extensions of class work- eg: my friend was studying history, and his course was about Russia/Germany from about 1880-1950. He did EP on The Treaty of Versailles (sp?), which he covered in classwork, but (AFAIK) went into it a lot more deeply. Everyone else's was a similar thing - nobody went off into a subject that the teachers didn't know about.

[...]

The point to this, frankly long winded, post is that you should never do something that is outside your teacher's comfort zone if it is important to your grade

 

I'm a little worried about these posts; I'm doing an (utterly unrelated to theatre) EPQ, and I was of the understanding that the subject of your project must not be an area of specialist knowledge for your supervisor/mentor and must not overlap with anything covered by other standard A levels.

AQA has this to say about the "Guided learning hours":

All your students will have to undertake independent research, keep their AQA Production log, produce a written report and give a presentation to a non-specialist audience. You can use your teaching hours to instruct them in the necessary core skills of:

• time and project management
  
• research (including use of library, internet and media) and evaluating resources (especially internet sources)
  
• report writing and avoiding plagiarism
  
• referencing (the Harvard system for example) and creating a bibliography
  
• presentation skills.
  

You might also choose to teach other relevant and additional skills such as, ICT, editing, or techniques appropriate to their chosen project product.

Nowhere does it mention teaching the subject of the project.

 

As Paul points out, this approach of leaving students to figure out the subject area alone without the guidance of a specialist will quite possibly lead to unnoticed and systematic misunderstandings in the final product, but this doesn't matter: the point of the qualification is to demonstrate (and at least supplement, if not create) the student's ability to independently create an extended project: skills that are necessary at university.

 

As I say, I'm concerned because certainly mar is involved with the EPQ elsewhere (or is it just your school and not you directly?) - if either your or my school has got the wrong end of the stick, there's going to be a seriously unfair balance of help for the students! Reassure me?