Examination arrangement

Course content

Research project of 60 sp under supervision, within environmental chemistry or a related topic within chemistry-based science.

Learning outcome

Knowledge: • Demonstrate thorough knowledge of the scholarly theories and methods of relevant methods and hypothesis testing, including experimental analysis (chemical), statistical techniques and other tools used to analyse and solve environmental chemical issues in research, manufacturing, management or teaching. • Demonstrate knowledge to history and traditions in the field, and can analyse academic problems on the basis of knowledge of international research in her/his speciality, knowledge of international research groups in the field, and the breadth of research being performed in the fields of "Environmental Toxicology" and "Environmental Chemistry".• Be able to apply knowledge to new areas within of Environmental Chemistry or related topics in chemistry.Skills: • Independently work on practical and theoretical problems, analyse and deal critically with various sources of information, existing theories, methods and interpretations and use them to structure and formulate scholarly arguments within the area of environmental chemistry or related topics in chemistry.• Use of a variety of advanced quantitative and qualitative analysis methods, methodology in the field and the application of these to independently analyse and solve (modelling) problems within environmental chemistry or related topic within chemistry-based science.• Collect and analyse environmental samples or data, perform statistical analysis of data, and interpret and present research results using adequate language and terminology. • Combine methods and results from several scientific disciplines, especially environmental chemistry, analytical chemistry, statistics and modelling.• Carry out an independent, research or development project under supervision and in accordance with applicable norms for research ethics.• Make critical and independent assessments of methods and results. • Handle chemical substances and biological material in accordance with Environment Health and Safety (EHS) and evaluate environmental consequences of their use.General competence: • Apply knowledge and skills to analyse relevant academic and professional problems in environmental chemistry or related topics in chemistry.• Describe, explain and evaluate role of environmental chemistry in society and be able to assess ethical issues within these fields.• Continuously monitor new empirics in environmental chemistry or related topics in chemistry, evaluate reliability and assess if additional information needs to be retrieved, assessed and taken into use.• Carry out and solve advanced tasks and projects, both independently and in teams, and to assess her/his own contribution to projects and how to continuously develop his/her professional competence. • Follow global developments relevant to her/his own scientific field, not only with the discipline, but including societal changes and needs.• Communicate subject matter and scientific results both to specialists and to a wider audience and be able to formulate scientific reasoning/argumentation.• Contribute to new thinking and innovation processes in the field of environmental chemistry or related topics in chemistry.

Learning methods and activities

All students doing their master's thesis at the Faculty of Natural Sciences, should conclude an agreement regarding counselling. The standard contact period with the supervisor(s) is 50 hours. Any contact between supervisor/s and student beyond this, depends on the supervisor(s) choice of supervision methodology. It is expected that the student works independently beyond the standard contact period. Before beginning with the master project work, the student must take part in the compulsory HSE training at the Department. The student writes a comprehensive scientific report on his/her research activity and results thereof in a Scandinavian language or in English, delivered before the deadline given in the masters' degree agreement. He/she orally and publicly presents the master thesis after submission of the thesis, and before the oral examination on/defence of the thesis. There is one aggregate grade for the masters' thesis, examination/defence and presentation. The student participates actively in the Scientific Seminars in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (RFEL3070) throughout the studies, including 2 presentations of her/his master project.

Further on evaluation

All master thesis' at NTNU will be graded after a national policy of grading master's theses. Read more about the guidelines here: https://innsida.ntnu.no/wiki/-/wiki/English/Description+of+grades+for+master+thesis

Specific conditions

Required previous knowledge

Admittance to the master program and a master's degree agreement.