Project Activity Log

Learner Name P. Turner Learner number XXXX

Centre Name Projects High Centre Number XXXXX

Unit Name Dissertation Unit number P301

Teacher Assessor Mr Smith

Proposed project title Is the mind the same as the brain?

This form should be used to record the process of your project and be submitted as evidence with the
final piece of work.
You may want to discuss:
• what you have done (eg, from one week to the next)
• if you are working in a group, what discussions you have had
• any changes that you have or will need to make to your plans
• what resources you have found or hope to find
• what problems you are encountering and how you are solving them
• what you are going to do next

Date Comments
1/10/2012 We have been having lessons as preparation for our Extended Project and have just been asked to
start thinking about our project titles. I have various ideas and I need to do some research to help
decide on exactly what I should do. I am mainly interested in doing something relating to the
mind as this has been the most interesting thing I have studied this year at school.

8/10/2012 We have had a session in the library and I have had my first tutorial with Mr Smith. He advised me
that I have to choose a specific question for my project. I was thinking I could use the title ‘What
is the mind?’ but this seems to be too broad. He advised me to do some research online to find
out what topics people are arguing about.
16/10/2012 We have just had a lesson where the whole structure of the project has been explained to us.
This has been really helpful and I have started to fill in my project proposal form, even though
I’ve still not made up my mind about my title. I’m getting a bit worried about this as other
people seem to know exactly what they are doing. Over half-term I shall try to find some books
and articles to get some more ideas.
23/10/2012 I found a really useful website called ‘closer to truth’ which has interviews with lots of scientists
and philosophers. I’ve been watching several of the talks about consciousness. I think that I could
focus on the question of the mind/ body problem. I’ve looked on Amazon for books written by
some of the people in the interviews and I’ve ordered a book. I’ve now finished my project
proposal form. I’ve also ordered the student guide for the EPQ.
2/11/2012 Mr Smith looked at my project proposal form. He said that I needed to explain the reasons for my
choice of project more fully and also that I needed to put in a more detailed plan. I’ve tried to
do this based on the outline of the different sections of the project which we were given. On the
Edexcel website there is a useful voice-over presentation. The examiner goes on a bit but I found
the section on the literature review really useful. I’ve started researching and making notes and
I’m keeping my bibliography up-to-date.

Edexcel Project Qualifications – Activity Log Issue 1 – September 2008

Date Comments
9/11/2012 I am starting to lose my way with the literature review. I’ve found lots of websites and also a
review article and I really don’t know which bits I’m supposed to be including. Next week we are
all having a trip to our local university where the librarian has offered to help us. I’m hoping this
will help me get back on track. I’ve managed to make a few more notes but not much more.
15/11/2012 The visit to the university was really helpful. They did a session for us explaining what a
literature review is. Apparently the key thing is to tell the story of the main ideas behind your
project. I’ve decided to organise mine around different theories and look at how they developed
historically. I checked this with Mr Smith and he thought it was a good idea. I’ve actually made a
plan for the literature review and am now organising all the notes I’ve made to work out what
fits where. I would like to get on with writing this now but unfortunately we have mock exams to
revise for.
25/11/2012 I almost had a total disaster. My flash-drive broke and I thought for a moment I’d lost my entire
project. Luckily I had emailed a draft of my literature review to Mr Smith so I found it again in my
‘sent items’ box.
2/12/2012 Under a lot of pressure. We are supposed to hand-in the literature review in 4 days time and I’ve
still got loads to do. Also Biology coursework is due at the end of the week. I am working late
tonight and luckily I’ve got some free periods tomorrow afternoon when I hope to get more done.
3/12/2012 I’m pleased with what I’ve done. I’ve written 1800 words and covered Descartes and the main
arguments of his critics. I’ve also written a section about how modern psychology developed out
of philosophy and how brain scanning is now an important part of the process. Tweeted to #EPQ
to say I’m nearly at my first milestone.
6/12/2012 I have handed in my first draft of the literature review and I’m now waiting to hear from Mr
Smith. In the meantime I’ve been updating my bibliography. A friend pointed out that if you use
the ‘references’ ‘insert citation’ option on Word then you can put in all your source details and
the computer will then generate the bibliography for you. I wish I’d known this at the start of the
course.
13/12/2012 Nearly the end of term. Mr Smith has given me back my literature review. He says that I’ve done
some good research and have a reasonable range of sources. However I have to work on
evaluating the reliability of each source and also I need to link the sources together to make the
literature review more like a story. He wondered as well whether I’d thought of talking to an
educational psychologist. There is someone he knows who visits the school and if I’d like to, he
said he’d put me in touch. Sounds like a good idea.

5/01/2012 I didn’t write much over Christmas but I did manage to finish reading ‘The mysterious flame’
which has given me a lot of ideas for the discussion section. My main problem now is that I have
all this stuff about lots of theories and I really don’t know what I think myself.
15/01/2012 Yikes. We’ve just been told that we have to have the discussion section written by the end of the
month. In the EPQ class today, we did a ‘work-in-progress’ seminar when we all had to talk about
our projects. I thought this went OK – quite a few of the group still haven’t finished their
literature reviews. At least I’m a bit further on than that. When I was explaining the different
theories, someone in the group said that he thought that we will probably never know what the
mind is. This has set me thinking about whether there is a right answer to my question. Maybe we
will never understand the mind. Maybe it is a mistake trying to come up with a ‘theory’ to
explain it. But this does make my project seem pretty pointless.
22/01/2012 It is just over a week to go before the discussion is due in. We have also had modules. I really
don’t think it is fair setting these deadlines. I said so to Mr Smith but he pointed out that a
project is a process and unless there are deadlines it won’t work at all as students tend to leave
everything to the last minute. He said that a deadline is the last time you are allowed to hand in
work – and you can always hand it in before the deadline if plan ahead. I find it really annoying
when teachers say things like this.

Edexcel Project Qualifications – Activity Log Issue 1 – September 2008

Date Comments
31/01/2013 I had to stay up very late and I’m not very happy with the discussion I’ve written but it will have
to do. We had an EPQ class last week when Mr Smith explained that you have to have a line of
argument and consider counter-arguments. Actually this wasn’t too hard for me as most of the
debate is between the dualists and materialists so I was able to organise the discussion quite
nicely. What I probably haven’t done very well is to develop my own point of view but this is
mainly because I still don’t know what to think.
7/02/2013 I’ve had feedback on my discussion. Mr Smith was actually quite complimentary. He said that the
fact that I had used different theories and argued based on evidence from my research was very
good indeed. But I need to make my own point of view clearer from the start. Could have guessed
that myself. I feel stuck, as I don’t really have a point of view.
14/02/2013 Today I had an interview with the school’s educational psychologist. She was really helpful. She
actually read some of my EPQ and thought it was really interesting. She said that in her
experience the different theories of psychology and philosophy are instructive but there is always
an element of mystery when you are dealing with something like the human mind. She doesn’t
think you can solve things using theories. I suddenly realized that this is basically the same
argument that Colin McGinn was making in his book. Our minds aren’t capable of understanding
themselves. So at last I have a point of view to argue for. Apparently the theory is called
mysterianism, which sounds quite neat. I’m taking the evening off and am going to sit down and
re-draft my discussion at the weekend.
19/02/2013 It is all coming together. I feel much happier with the discussion and have now added a
conclusion too and started the introduction. Mr Smith advised me to look back at my project
proposal form and use this as a basis for the introduction. In the EPQ class we have looked at how
to write an abstract. Most people write them in the past-tense as they do it at the end, but it
should be in the present or future tense Mr Smith said.
25/02/2013 Now I have a full-draft of the project which I’ve handed in. I’m waiting for comments back and
starting to plan my presentation. We were told that the golden rule for presentations is ‘less is
more’. I have been trying to work out what bits I need to talk about. I hate public speaking and
I’m going to plan out my talk entirely on cards.
1/03/2013 Making final corrections and writing up my evaluation. I feel the process has gone really well and
I’m pleased with the work I’ve done. We’ve been told though that we need to focus on
weaknesses and gaps in our projects. I think, looking back, that I would have picked a more
specific question if I was starting again. The topic I chose turned out to be huge. I could have
written a whole project by just focussing on one particular theory, rather than trying to cover all
of them.
6/03/2013 I’ve printed out my project and am just proof-reading now. I’ve printed it out using 1.15 spacing
and have to add a table of contents and a title page. During the EPQ class was did a dry-run of
the presentation. Mine was a disaster. I had to stop after 20 minutes and realized I’ve got far too
much to talk about. I’m going to focus on just the mysterianism theory for my final talk.

8/03/2013 Finished. I did my presentation and just about kept to time. I also managed not to just read from
my cards, which I did in the rehearsal. Mr Smith and the Head were watching. The Head asked me
to explain what I thought I had learned from doing an EPQ. Mr Smith asked me if my theory
wasn’t a bit unscientific! I don’t know how it went but they seemed pleased and my friends in
the audience said I’d done really well. I’ve definitely enjoyed doing the EPQ though I’d no idea
how much work it would be.

Edexcel Project Qualifications – Activity Log Issue 1 – September 2008