PBR-32303 Wageningen Weeks Part 1 (DL)

Course

Credits 3.00

Language of instruction:

English

Assumed knowledge on:

Theoretical knowledge from the courses preceding the stay in Wageningen: Principles of Plant Breeding (PBR-22803); Plant Pathology and Disease Epidemiology (PHP-21803); Genetics (PBR-31803); Plant Biotechnology (PBR-23803)

Registration:

The DL-MSc-specializations have a fixed schedule during the pilot-phase

Contents:

NOTE: this course is taught specifically for the students in Distance Learning Specialization and is not available for the on-Campus students. Self-registration for this course is not possible.
Note: The period mentioned below is the period in which this course starts. For the exact academic weeks see the courseplanning on www.wur.eu/schedule.

During this two week practical, students of the Distance Learning Specialization come to Wageningen and will meet each other and Wageningen University staff for the first time. This practical period builds on the courses PBR-22803 (Principles of plant breeding), PBR-31803 (genetics) and PBR-23803 (Plant Biotechnology) and the Skills that are an integral part of this Distance Learning MSc. In the one day excursion we will visit two plant breeding companies. This will be a vegetable breeding company, with application of genomics and Marker assisted selection in breeding programs of many of their crops; special attention is given to their seed quality management. In addition, an ornamental breeding company or crop breeding (potato) company will be visited, with different breeding strategies. For the Skills training, students will have an interactive training and will present their Plant biotechnology assignment and have a debate on societal issues related to plant breeding. The practicals are designed to increase insight in genetic and breeding principles (heritability, epistasis, genetic diversity, segregation ratio's) and train skills in plant biotechnology research.

Learning outcomes:

After successful completion of this course students are expected to be able to:
- apply relevant laboratory techniques for assessing gene expression in transformed plants;
- make crosses in a diverse range of plants;
- understand the concepts genetic diversity, heritability and epistasis by phenotyping and genotyping plant populations and fitting the outcome to genetic models;
Write scientific reports of several practical experiments
- develop self-awareness of personal qualities and skills;
- present a group assignment using PowerPoint;
- participate in a debate about the (im)possibilities of plant biotechnology from a societal and a technical point of view;
- receive feedback from peers and supervisors, and skilfully provide feedback for your fellow students.

Activities:

Excursion to two breeding companies and a technology lab.

Examination:

The practicum weeks consist of experiments (65%), skills training, including presentations of the grand challenge projects (20%) and excursions (15%). The examination consists of a presentation of the grand challenge projects (15%) and written reports of the individual practical elements by small groups of students (85%).

Literature:

Available through the course website.