|
 Academic Year:
| 2013/4 |
| Owning Department/School:
| Department of Biology & Biochemistry |
| Credits:
| 6 |
| Level:
| Masters UG & PG (FHEQ level 7) |
| Period: |
Semester 2 |
| Assessment:
| CW 100% |
| Supplementary Assessment: | Like-for-like reassessment (where allowed by programme regulations) |
| Requisites:
| |
| Description:
| Aims: To introduce the student to natural habitats in ways that enable the student to recognise patterns of distribution and behaviour of organisms and to question the basis of these patterns and behaviours. To introduce the student to the use of appropriate sampling patterns, experimental design, data gathering and statistical analysis. Learning Outcomes: After taking the course the student should be able to: * appreciate how aspects of behavioural ecology and of community structure can be investigated; * understand how these behaviours and structure may have arisen and how they are maintained; * design and perform a short field-based investigation; analyse and graphically present data; * prepare a verbal and written report of field-based investigations; * prepare a mathematical model based on the field-based investigation. Skills: After taking the course the student should have obtained an understanding of experimental design in ecology (taught), and of the design of mathematical and statistical modelling and of data analysis (taught and facilitated). Content: Visit to ecosystem types of varying complexity and subject to different kinds of selection process. Ecosystem types will include rocky shore, sand dune, coastal grassland, woodland, heath and fresh water. Investigation of components of these ecosystem types including spatial distribution, size distribution, reproduction and behaviour. Each student designs and carries out a two-day field-based investigation; a report of the two-day investigation is presented as a short talk on the last day of the field trip; the data from the investigations are analysed and graphically presented; a phenomenon observed during the field-based investigation is explored with a mathematical model. |
| Programme availability: |
BB50166 is Optional on the following programmes:Department of Mathematical Sciences
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