Zoë Thomas BA (Hons.) (Oxon.)

Writing Mentor Training

University of Exeter, UK

I attended a training course to be a writing mentor for undergraduate Geography students. This is to help with the style and structure of writing essays rather than the content itself. 

QRA@50 Quaternary Revolutions

Royal Geographical Society, London, UK

This was a special conference celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Quaternary Research Association. I presented a poster, and had the opportunity to network with other researchers and postgraduate students. 

Tipping Points: Fundamentals and Applications

University of Edinburgh, UK

This was the second CliMathNet conference held, with a more specific research theme of tipping points. I presented a poster in with colleagues from the Mathamatics department and met other reseachers and postgraduate students with whom I have since enjoyed collaboration. 

QRA Postgraduate Symposium

University of Southampton, UK

I gave an oral presentation at this symposium entitled 'Abrupt transitions in the East Asian Summer Monsoon: Early warnings and missed alarms'.

CliMathNet Conference

University of Exeter, UK

The first CliMathNet conference was held in Exeter. Here I presented a poster, in collaboration with colleagues in the Mathematics department. 

INQUA Conference

Bern, Switzerland 

In July 2011 I went to Bern to attend the International Quaternary Association Conference. Here I presented a poster on my research so far entitled 'The detection of tipping points in the palaeoclimate record'. This prompted many discussions with scientists from a range of institutions and with different expertise. The rest of the week was spend attending sessions and meeting other people within the Quaternary community.

Royal Geological Society: Past Carbon Isotopic Events and Future Ecologies

Royal Geological Society, London, UK

This conference was a great opportunity to meet other students and academics in a similar research field, as well as listen to and discuss various presentations.

Quaternary Research Association Postgraduate Symposium 2010

University of Exeter, UK

This symposium was just before I started my PhD. This was a great opportunity to meet other postgraduate students, experience an informal conference and discuss research in an informal manner.

Learning and Teaching in Higher Education - Part 2

The LTHE Part 2 aims to look in more depth at learning, teaching, student support, assessment and evaluation.

An introduction to Endnote bibliographic referencing

This session helped to learn how to use the Endnote bibliographic referencing system.

Tackling a PhD literature review

This session aimed to help:
- Understand the purpose and scope of a literature review and how this relates to the research question
- Know the criteria of a successful literature review
- Learn to choose an appropriate structure for the review
- Search and judge relevance of source material efficiently
- Know strengths and weaknesses of various types of sources
- Read and take notes with a defined purpose
- Feel confident when outlining and writing up the review

Efficient Reading in Research

This session helped to reduce work load by intelligent selection, learn about 'speed reading', understand effective reading strategies and retain more of what is read.

Introduction to e-journals

This session helped to plan effective search strategies and learn to use advanced/personalised options when searching online for e-journals.

SmartStart: A PhD Introduction

An introductory course aiming to:
- understand better the nature of the PhD
- consider the purposes, forms and processes of the PhD at the University of Exeter
- begin to explore key issues in the management of both the project and of the relationship with supervisors
- address practical issues relating to thesis production and to the upgrading process from MPhil to PhD
- consider ways in which the student can regularly plan and review their own development needs
- start to develop relevant team, time and project management skills
- gain an awareness of where to go for further help and guidance

Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (LTHE Part 1)

This was a one day training course, with the opportunity to explore the knowledge, understanding, skills and values needed to enable students to learn effectively in a modern higher eduaction environment. The course also enabled 'practise' teaching an aspect of each subject in a short micro-teaching activity, and gain valuable and constructive feedback from peers.

Introduction to R course

Imperial College London, London, UK

This course was run by the Statistical Advisory Service. The following basic skills were taught:

- Entering commands and data

- The R environment

- Statistical analysis

- R graphics

- Programming and functions in R