PETROGEO 4015 - Research Skills for Energy Geoscience

This research project-oriented course provides interactive tuition and experiential learning of core research, presentation and communication skills that will provide the toolkit for students to embark on their Honours year research project. There will also be some discipline-specific technical training that introduces and instructs in the use of various industry-standard software packages for working with data types acquired and used by Energy Geoscience operators. Students undertaking this program typically select to specialise in this discipline in order to enter the industry sector upon graduation. The core skills training modules for this course concern the presentation of student work as preparation for completing future assessed components of their research project work in Semester 2 (under courses PG4020 & PG4021). These modules are: - Presentation Skills – preparing students to communicate their work effectively in the form of research poster and oral Powerpoint-style presentations. These skills will be called upon in Semester 2 when students will present their research results at the SET faculty-industry research expo called Ingenuity, and when they undertake oral assessment of their research thesis work by an expert panel of academic staff during the Semester 2 examinations period. - Thesis Writing Skills – preparing students to construct a properly structured and engaging scientific research thesis, the core product of their research project delivered towards the end of Semester 2. This module will follow a similar two-stage structure as is already adopted informally as part of the current program. The first stage is an interactive workshop-style session where students are introduced to the formal structure of a thesis document and its relationship to standard modes of written scientific communication. They are also introduced to various key techniques and devices that help to make their scientific writing diligent, effective, engaging and compelling. Students will also be shown various tools they can use to help with their writing, e.g. Endnote, and their time-management, e.g. Gantt charts, etc. - Energy resources exploration software & data skills – industry sector-specific data and software techniques are key learning outcomes for our graduates but also provide a foundation of technical skills they will use when undertaking their Honours research project work. This module will teach students how to load, interpret and model geospatial, wireline log and seismic survey datasets. Assessment will comprise marking of exercise work assessed previously as part of courses and sub-modules that will no longer form part of the formal technical coursework program (having been part of PG4011 and PG4012 courses that are being replaced). Students wishing to progress to PhD study following their Honours degree will have undertaken skills training in this course that gives them a comfortable head-start with the transferable work-management and technical data working skills necessary for successful completion of a longer term project.