AI and assessments

The University dreamed up something new: the AI declaration sheet. It asks the students to declare in what way they have used AI in the assessments they do. The idea is that they attach that sheet to said assessments. 

What is this for? Im not sure! Is it an arse-covering exercise in some way? Is it an attempt to find out what the students use it for? Is it to give them ideas? I have no idea! I think they soon want to make it compulsory. Currently, it is not.

My current batch of marking comes with those sheets. For those students who didn't forget. And I don't really look at what they say; you're not going to mark something in a different way if you know that someone has used AI to help them with coding or something. But I was curious. What do the student say they use it for? So I had a little look at the field trip report the students have to write about the data they collected in October. And I made a little inventory.

There were 30 students who had submitted the form. Eight of these said they hadn't used AI at all. Nine said they had used it for one aspect of the work. Five said they had used it for two of them. Two had used it for three, three for four, one for five, and two for six. So it looks like the majority of the students is using AI.

So what were they using it for? The most common thing was spelling and grammar. Excellent idea! That option was ticked 11 times. The second most common use was for helping with coding. That was ten times. There were eight cases of help with suggesting sources, seven for providing explanations, six for summarising sources, three for analysing data, two for some other assistive role, and one for translating text.

The one option that wasn't ticked was for providing the structure of the text. That is basically because the assignment is rather prescriptive. I tell them what set-up I want. I know from the dissertation module that where it is less prescriptive, that is what quite many do. Not necessarily to good effect! But that is a different matter. 

So things have changed a lot! A few years ago, none of them would've had access to artificial intelligence to help them. Now more than two thirds are already using it. And spelling and grammar checks are older than generative AI, of course, but if that is what they use it for then they are using it well. And I think letting it help you with coding is a good idea as well. As long as it is used for help, and not for doing the work on its own. In the end, we want them to understand what they are doing. Relying too heavily on AI will sooner or later backfire with things like that.

What about the suggesting sources, summarising them, and providing explanations? I think I will have these tools at their disposal forever, so if with that tool they can do a good job that's good. The risk is that if you rely heavily on AI, you can't evaluate if it is doing a good job. And scientists should be very critical. I would hope that the students use it to be better scientists, not worse ones. If they use the AI to be quicker, but still keep their critical head on, that would be ideal. But the reality is probably that it is a bit of a mixed bag! You will always have students who use tools well and those who don't. Plus ça change…

Infrared progress

I had booked in the installers of my infrared panels in summer. That way I would be well ready for winter. However; it didn't quite go according to plan. The installer left with the job half done, and none of the newly installed panels wired in, so none of them were working. And the company said that they could come back the next month to finish it all off, but that was not true. They had come with too few small panels, and apparently, these just weren’t in stock for a while.

In the meantime, my inverter also conked out, and replacing that was just added to the work to be done by the infrared men. 

After some months we agreed on dates in mid December for the job to be finished. Both panels and inverter seem to be available again! But then there was a positive surprise; someone had cancelled something, so the men could come earlier, on the 1st of December. And I asked the lady who told me that what they would do. Finish the infrared panel installation, or change my inverter. She said all of it. I was sceptical, but we kept the later dates in the diary for contingency.

On December 1st they duly showed up. It was supposed to have been the same installer who had started to work, but he had left the company in the meantime. It was two blokes who had been there earlier; one who I think had installed my battery, and the wingman of the guy who had left. So at least the latter knew something about how the work had been started.

Sam, who had the lead but hadn’t been there the previous time, first asked what the situation was. And he decided to start installing the panels in the landing. When that was done, they proceeded to the inverter. I had been happily working away in my home office while they were installing the panels, but to get to the inverter you have to be in the home office. I picked up my laptop and went elsewhere. And they managed to switch the inverter over, but not quite program the new one yet. That would have to wait until next time.

Panels in the landing! 

The mess that caused

I also asked about the panel in my bathroom. That had been installed really high. That way it is only heating my head! Not quite what you want when you are coming out of the shower. But the man said they couldn't; the cable wasn't long enough. The only thing they could do is tilted downwards a bit, so it would still aim add me a bit more. That would have to do. 

That panel also had a faulty thermostat, but it's turned out it is incredibly easy to change these. He did it right there and then. So at least I have a working panel in the bathroom again!

I also asked him to take away the four panels that had been left in my conservatory the previous time. He was happy to do that. So I have my space back.

All the new panels still don't work. Sam did not realise he would have to bring some supplies for linking it all up. He will have to bring that next time. So it will be very close to Christmas by the time I finally have my new heating installed. Not ideal! But better late than never. I can only hope that everything goes well when they come back in a few weeks’ time. It would be annoying if they would run into difficulty again. Through Sam leaving the company, for instance. It seems that that would be a typical thing to happen! But let’s hope not…

Wheel pit and Conglog

If you walk back to civilisation from Rhosydd you come past what looks like a very big wheel pit. If I come past, I tend to have had a long day underground, and I just want to get home. Or maybe I’m in a group and I don’t feel free to go on a recce. But after our Moelwynion adventure, Neil and I walked past, and I thought this might be the moment to change that. Neil was happy with that. 

It is a huge wheel pit! It made us both feel a bit funny to look down into it. Imagine the size of the wheel this was designed for. But Neil had heard that this wheel pit had never been in use. It may never have had a wheel! But still. It's an impressive structure! From whichever angle we looked at it.

Small-looking Neil om big wheel pit

View from the side

I suppose we were on a roll. The next thing you walk past is Conglog mine. I had never had a close look at that either. But he was up for staring into these strange, more or less concentric, holes in the flank of the hill as well.

The first one we looked into was not very spectacular. It looked like it had collapsed, and you couldn't see any passages lead on. But when we moved further towards Rhosydd we saw that some of the others do. Given that the mine doesn't have big spoil heaps, I thought it would be very small, but having started into the abyss I had to change my mind. It was bigger than I thought! And I figured some of it may still be internally connected.

On the Cwmorthin side: big holes

On the Rhosydd side: small ones

When I thought I had come to the end of the mine I kept walking, just in case. And found an entrance. It was dry. I quickly went to get Neil. I was sure he would want to see this! And he did. And we both had brought head torches. 

It was a very tidy passage, and after not much time it opens up into a big chamber. Downwards. My caving headlight would be better able to check just how big it was! My surface head torch barely reached the far end. And Neil's absolutely didn't.

I saw there was an anchor in the wall. People have clearly explored this! Of course they have. But the anchor looks very old. I don't think this is a well-trodden mine. I suppose that means it doesn't really connect internally. If it did, people would be all over it! Or maybe, you can get everywhere without this descent. Still, it would be tempting to descend one day. Too bad I retired my rope and do not intend to buy another one. But who knows! It just might happen. And an explore for a different entrance would totally be on the cards. 

I was really glad to have ticked these two items off the list! At least with regards to a first explore. It had already been a good day, but this was some unexpected bonus on the way back. Always nice!

Finding snow while not looking for it

There was a Sunday with good weather forecast, so Neil and I wanted to go on another adventure. And I figured I hadn’t been to the Moelwynion in a while. He was up for doing something about that. He arrived at my place quite early, and said the mountains were white again. I hadn’t seen that yet! 

In the Blaenau area, it wasn’t quite as white as the Carneddau. But still somewhat white! We parked by the reservoir and took the public footpath. Later we saw it wasn’t the one I had intended. No problem; we could just turn into the right direction later. That was a bit of a faff; someone had plonked a fence in the way. We were not fazed. Soon we found ourselves in the blazing sun on a series of inclines I had never negotiated. What a good early result! And we got to Stwlan Dam (the venue of my first race of the year). There the weather turned a bit. 

Incline in the sun

Stwlan Dam

Looking back to Blaenau, with the road Sbrint Stiniog is on

We wanted to do Moelwyn Bach first, and improvised the route a bit. That involved some negotiating of a grassy slope with melting snow on it - that was slippery. Not my favourite. But what followed was a lovely scramble! Through a dreamy misty landscape. And when we got to the summit plateau we walked to the actual top through horizontal snow. That was a bit cold. A Jack Russell we came across there thought so too. Poor shivery little dog. All humans and dogs quickly started to head down again; we in the direction of Moelwyn Mawr. Neil slipped on the melting snow. That gave me reservations about doing the bigger peak too! But some people who came the other way reassured me. We continued. 

Different weather on the flank of Moelwyn Bach

Moelwyn Mawr was also snowy and windy. We didn’t linger. And were hoping for some shelter for lunch. That wasn’t imminent! The blazing sunshine of the start of our walk seemed a long time ago. But we found some. Lunch was due! And we had a view (if the clouds allowed it) over the area where the Tyllau of Rhosydd are. Very beautiful! 

Lunch view

After lunch we continued. We had a look at the Rhosydd spoils, and a Twll, and the tunnel leading to it. And some buildings. Then we took the incline down to the mill, by the drainage adit (and main entrance). From there we went down the conventional way, past Llyn Cwmorthin. 

Rhosydd buildings

Autumnal selfie

The route we would take back

Along the way we had a look at some industrial remains I had never explored before. They’ll get their own blog post! But then we walked back with a firm pace as it was raining. 

On the way back we went for a hot chocolate at Swallow Falls. I had never been, in all the time I had lived here! And not too long ago it had undergone extensive renovation. I was curious to see how it had turned out. And it was clear that some considerable effort had been made! We both liked the place, and our hot chocolate. And then we went home to have dinner and light the fire. Another excellent adventure! Although the start was not very representative. The forecast had been a bit optimistic! But at least we had seen more snow than the week before, when we had gone explicitly looking for it…

Allocation done

One of the big jobs of the autumn is done! I have given all the students a dissertation topic. There were many of them: almost 200. And it was different from earlier years.

I let the students pick four topics off a list, and they have to all be topics by different members of staff. And then I have to somehow make it work. The complication with this is that we have many more members of staff per student on the physical side, so before you know it, the biological staff will have the maximum number of students, and then it becomes difficult. So far, staff members have been volunteering for supervising other people’s topics, but typically, the biologist volunteer for biological topics, and the non-biologist, obviously, for non-biological topics. And there's plenty of staff to supervise the non-biological topics! So that doesn't really help.

In the past it has always been the case that some non-biological staff just got considerably fewer dissertation students than pretty much all the biologists. That was not appreciated. I do compensate by giving people with few students more second marking to do, but that's not quite the same. And last year doing my PDR (and at another meeting), I had agreed with the head of school (HoS) and the director of teaching and learning (DTL) that we would do it differently. People whose own topics were not chosen very much just had to volunteer for a sufficient number of popular topics so that I could give them their fair share as well. And if they didn't like it, I would have to just make them. My authority might not do the job, but the combined authority of the HoS and the DTL would.

I started by first giving the traditionally unpopular people students. And then I worked my way up the popularity list. First giving everyone only their own topics, but later also the topics by others they had indicated they could supervise. And it quickly became clear that among the physicists, there were quite many who wouldn’t get to their fair share of students that way. So now the new rules came into force: I asked them to volunteer for more topics, especially biological ones. And most of them did. And I managed to get them their load of students. 

When I only had a handful of students left, I just assigned them to the staff who hadn’t volunteered enough. Job done! Almost. With 200 students on the course, there were bound to be mistakes in the final spreadsheet. 

The check indeed revealed some issues. A few students who had been allocated twice, two students who had fallen through the cracks. Things like that! And that then means some staff have too many or too few students. But I managed to sort that.

Then I sent it to the staff. With the students now distributed evenly I didn’t expect any complaints. But there was one member of staff who suggested a last minute change. Luckily, it was the easy type. I made that happen, and then it was ready to go to the students. 

I expect complaints! They always come. There are always students who say that not getting their first choice will negatively affect their career. And maybe it does! But if I give everyone their first choice, you get members of staff with tens of dissertation students, and that is unworkable. And those who want to keep their future in their own hands can design their own projects. If you start early enough, that is totally feasible! 

 

There are topics about eyespots on fish. Pic by David J. Stang

Marking update

It started with the big and the small piles of marking. I decided to get the small one out of the way first. And in two days, I had marked everything that had been uploaded. That was only about 2/3 of the cohort, as the rest had extensions. But it felt good to get to the end of the list as it was. I decided to not publish anything until the people with the extensions had submitted too. 

With the second batch almost coming in, I got my skates on and did the assignment myself. This is the one that is based on the field trip, so every year has different data. I have to process that as much as the students do! But I have done it before, so for me it is quite quick. Especially since I found a way of doing it in R rather than in Excel.

Before I started on the second batch I tried to make a dent into the assignment of the big cohort. It is not in itself a big assignment, but if you have to mark 100 scripts, it still takes a lot of time. And if you try to do them all in succession you go bonkers! So my strategy was to sometimes do a limited number. 

By the end of that week I had marked the entire small batch, including extensions. I hadn't made any progress on the big batch at all! Or the intermediate one. But I had spent a lot of time on the allocation; this gets its own blog post. And I had been away for two days, on a first aid course, and a day in the field. So I was quite satisfied altogether. The week after, I would have to get a big lump out of the other marking done!

 

There is an age-depth model in the small assignment. This is an example from the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 322 Preliminary Report, doi:10.2204/iodp.pr.322.2009 

 

Cemaes in the wind

This year it would be Dei and me doing the field trip to Cemaes. And I had suggested we distribute the talking points as follows: we take turns, and he starts. That means we would both do ones we normally don’t do. We wouldn’t be as rehearsed as usual, but it made for a change! And that’s nice too. 

The forecast wasn’t very good! Rain in the morning, and wind all day. I made sure to dress warmly and bring even more layers. 

Dei started off with his usual enthusiasm at a dyke swarm. I took over at an old stromatolite. Then we made sure to drive as close as we could to the next site. There we had hydrothermally altered quartzite. We chose to have lunch in the vehicle. It was very windy, and it also still rained. No day for a picnic!

Dei and his dyke swarm

By the White Lady

The next stop was another melange, with some rare bright orange iron carbonate. Then we had an unusually pretty other stromatolite, and a remote view on a thrust fault. We also popped into the church. It is both associated with St Patrick, and the UK’s first Muslim MP. A big claim to fame! 

A limestone in the melange; a student is sceptical 

The iron carbonate 

We then went around to Porth Wen, where we looked at what may be that thrust fault again. And now up close. But was it? And does the landscape show signs of sea level rise? All this was more complicated than we would have liked. Or maybe we should have hoped for complication. It’s more interesting! 

By then we were all tired and ready to get out of the wind. We went back to Bangor. I think it was a good day! And this is the last trip of 2025. In the new year we will pick it up again…