YBI-37806 Frontiers in Biology

Course

Credits 6.00

Language of instruction:

English

Assumed knowledge on:

BSc Biology or comparable knowledge.

Contents:

This course deals with the latest developments in Biology and covers a wide range of themes, including molecular, organismal and ecological subjects. Highlights in modern biology will be addressed by studying recent articles and inviting keynote speakers active in various biological disciplines. The course will be organized as a regular congress with plenary discussions with invited speakers. Students write a summary about the articles and discussions with the keynote speakers.

Learning outcomes:

After successful completion of this course students are expected to be able to:
- to have insights in the latest developments in modern biology;
- to have insights in the main gaps in our current knowledge to predict the outcome of complex biological systems;
- to understand the reasoning and argumentation behind experiments to unravel biological processes;
- to have discussions about complex matters at an academic level with scientists and students from other biological disciplines;
- to recognize weak and strong points in scientific presentations and articles;
- to write a concise summary of scientific articles and discussions

Activities:

- attendance presentations;
- group discussions;
- reading and analysing scientific articles and presentations;
- writing a summary of articles and discussions with keynote speakers.

Examination:

- written test with open questions (60%);
- three individual summaries (40%).
Each component needs a minimum mark of 5.5 to pass.

Literature:

A reader with scientific articles will be handed out during the first lecture.