I made a few tentative enquiries about S284 Astronomy for next year 25J. They used to offer a Headstart and a Boot camp option but enquired to see if they still do. According to the qualification lead, the Boot camp might be offered next year but the Headstart will not. That's a bit of a shame really because I was looking forward to that. If I do it anyway, I can put it towards S10 Certificate in Astronomy and Planetary Science that I have had my eye on for a while now.
I finished the PowerPoint presentation on the cloud chamber and uploaded it to the area of the module website where these things are exchanged. To date, there were only 4 other people who have bothered to do it, and the closing date is next Friday the 7th March. Some students never engaged with the first practical and some on the list I have never heard of. It looks like my presentation will be reviewed by a student who engages with the module quite a bit, but I'm expected to review the presentation of a student who is totally new to me. I've never seen their name mentioned at all anywhere. By this time next week it will be all over as far as I can tell.
I don't think my presentation is particularly good, but half of the marks are given for stating how you would improve it after you have reflected on the feedback received from the reviewer. That's fair enough, so there is everything to play for.
I managed to do the freehand sketches of the hydrogen orbitals using Microsoft Paint and I think that is just about acceptable under the rules, but the Barium-137 decay graph is a bit dodgy. I've plotted it using Excel but the TMA strongly hints at a hand-drawn effort. A lot will depend on what my tutor - the one who will be marking it - says at the tutorial on Monday. If I'm still in doubt after all that, I will just ask them by email. I must say that TMA03 has been my least favourite assessment so far and it's the one that I think I will get the lowest mark in.
Interestingly, the SM123 exam (online - 3 hours) is exactly 100 days away today.