6 EC
Semester 1, period 2
5224ABIS6Y
| Owner | Master Biological Sciences |
| Coordinator | dr. T. Munnik |
| Part of | Master Biological Sciences, track General Biology, year 1Master Biological Sciences, track Green Life Sciences, year 1 |
Environmental (abiotic) stress represents the most limiting factor for agricultural productivity. This master course aims to broaden the student's background in abiotic-stress biology and to gain the latest insights into the molecular mechanisms by which plants perceive stress signals, how these are transduced, and how they are converted into intracellular responses that
will allow the plant to react appropriately.
A second aim of this course is to learn to write a successful grant application/research proposal. Students will be guided through the essential stages of proposal development, learning how to formulate a specific project goal, to collect and present supportive background data, to determine the level of stakeholder engagement, to measure and evaluate the outcomes, to plan project activities, and to budget the appropriate project costs.
The course will start with lectures about the various forms of abiotic stress that plants are encountering. These include, osmotic stress (salinity, drought), temperature stress (heat, cold), and heavy metals. The emphasis will be on how plants sense these stresses and how they are converted into responses at the molecular and physiological levels that allow plants to cope with such stress. Potential applications for crop improvement will also be discussed. The second part of the course involves writing of a personal research proposal. At the end of the course, students are expected to successfully present and defend their proposal.
Prior knowledge
Advanced (2nd and 3rd year BSc level) knowledge in Molecular and Cellular Biology is required.
Upon finishing this course successfully, the student will be able to:
Lecture material will be taken from recent reviews and research papers. During the first week of the course, four different Abiotic Stress topics will be lectured:
i) heavy metals-, ii) cold- , iii) salt & drought-, and iv) heat stress. After these lectures, you are expected to choose one of the topics to write a Research Proposal on. In the next five weeks, the students will write and present their own research proposal on one of the selected stress topics.
Weekly, there are tutorials on different aspects of how to write and present a research proposal, and is there time to meet your supervisor.
Activity | Number of hours |
Hoorcollege | 16 |
Presentatie | 7 |
Werkcollege | 3 |
Zelfstudie | 142 |
The programme does not have requirements concerning attendance (OER-B).
Additional requirements for this course:
Additional requirements for this course:
Attendance at lectures is highly recommended. Attendance during tutorials is mandatory (from Teaching and Examination Regulations).
| Item and weight | Details |
|
Final grade | |
|
60% Research proposal | Must be ≥ 5 |
|
30% Oral presentation | Must be ≥ 5 |
|
10% Questions @ Oral presentation | Must be ≥ 5 |
The date, time and location of the inspection moment are in the DataNose timetable.
For at least twenty working days after the announcement of the research proposal, students can, on request, inspect their assessed work.
Onderstaande opdrachten komen aan bod in deze cursus:
The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.uva.nl/plagiarism
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