EK5002: PERSONAL RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT (2014-2015)

The course will comprise a series of interactive tutorials. Subjects to be covered will include: · What are the current research issues in ecology? · The use and abuse of hypotheses. · How are new ecological ideas developed? · How is ecological research funded? · What ethical issues do different types of ecological research raise? · Making the best of bad data. · How to read, write and publish a scientific paper. · Planning an ecological research project. Other content will, however, be dictated to some extent by the students’ needs, which will vary from year to year. Feedback from students early in the course will guide the exact composition of later elements. This flexibility will also offer the opportunity for students to request and receive dedicated training on topics or techniques they identify in response to their experience in concurrent modules. Examples of these could include: data collection methods; statistics; taxonomy; environmental legislation. To meet this need external experts will be invited to run relevant tutorials as appropriate. In all tutorials, students will be encouraged to participate in class discussions, to assemble relevant background information and to use it to present structured arguments. This course also allows essential skills to be developed for the Project Review (ZO5501) which is an essential precursor to the Research Project itself.

Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.

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4,000 word Research Project Review. As well as forming the assessment for this course it will serve as a vital planning document for students' individual research projects.

There are no assessments for this course.

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