Course - Biology without borders - BI3085
Biology without borders
About
About the course
Course content
The main goals of this course are to:
- Acquaint students with interdisciplinary understanding and critical thinking of current research and applications of biological science in physiology, ecology, ethology, evolution, biosystematics, and molecular biology, and
- Develop skills in planning, implementing, discussing, and present the results of a Master’s level research project.
The framework of the course is seminars, guest lectures, group work, and student presentations. Senior researchers at NTNU, guest speakers from other institutions in the Trondheim area, and invited international speakers will give seminars focused on application of biological research to sustainable utilization and management of natural resources.
Students will work in interdisciplinary groups to develop and deliver seminar presentations, the first early in the studies to discuss the scientific plan, and the second towards the end of the studies to present results and conclusions. The seminars require active involvement and participation from the students.
Learning outcome
This course is designed to provide academic and career training for MSBIO students. The specific topics of training will include scientific discussions, presentation skills, giving and receiving feedback to/from peers, and career development for future non-academic jobs. The course also aims to help students find their thesis research topics and potential career path beyond the degree program.
Learning methods and activities
Course organization:
Each semester consists of 10 classes, which span 11-12 weeks’ time. The fall semesters include practical lectures and group discussions, where different disciplines may be grouped together. Spring semesters include preparing individual presentations as part of groupwork and giving presentations. This will prepare you with presentation skills as well as skills to give feedback to your peers. First-year students present their research topic as a poster presentation and second-year students present their research topic as an oral presentation at the end of the semester. To have meaningful seminar discussions, all students are required to submit a short abstract prior to their scheduled presentation. Abstracts must be submitted at least one week before the presentation and will be shared with fellow students to allow for preparation and informed participation.
General organization of groupwork:
The groups will be arranged by the course leader. Throughout the semester, the students will be placed in different groups, so they get to work together with different students. Each group will contain 5-6 students.
Expectations from the students:
You must meet a minimum of 75% attendance and two presentations. Additionally, active participation and positive input during the class are expected.
Examples of discussion topics in the following years
- How to write a thesis
- How to write an abstract
- How to find literature
- How to give good presentations
- Plagiarism
- Writing a cover letter and CV
- Career opportunity after MS degree
- Open, reproducible, sharable science
- Science and activism
Compulsory assignments
- Attendance seminar
Further on evaluation
(the information may be changed until June 15th)
Requirements to pass the course:
This is a course that is either pass or fail. A minimum of 75% attendance and two presentations (once in the first year and once in the second year of the study) are required to pass the course. Since it is a mandatory course, you will not be able to graduate if you do not pass the course.
Rules regarding the attendance:
A minimum of 75% attendance throughout the 4 semesters of the Masters’ study is required. The only exceptions for the attendance are
- attending a conference
- sick with doctor’s note
- death in the family
- giving birth
- called for duty
No other excuses will be accepted. As this is a mandatory course, there should not be another mandatory course scheduled during this course. If you miss because of an overlap with another course, fieldwork, etc., it will still be counted as absent.
You will be allowed to make up for missed attendance by attending the library courses offered online (2hr course will give you 1 full attendance) or attending IBI seminar series (1 seminar will give you 0.5 attendance). You will need to prove your registration and make a short summary of the course/seminar. Up to 10 missed classes can be made up this way. If you will be missing out more than 1 full year of the seminar due to distance learning, exchange, and fieldwork, you can register as a distance learning student, and you will be exempt from taking this course. Please discuss this with the course instructor and the study director.
The attendance will be taken during the first 15 minutes of the class. If you are late for more than 15 minutes, it will be counted as absent. Each 45 minute block will be counted as half attendance. You are required to be present for the two full blocks (45min + 15min break + 45min) to gain full attendance.
Specific conditions
Admission to a programme of study is required.
Required previous knowledge
Admitted to the Master's program in biology.
Subject areas
- Zoophysiology
- Biology
- Cell Biology
- Ecology