6 EC
Semester 1, period 2
5042BIGC6Y
Biodiversity contributes to the proper functioning of ecosystems and is essential for a sustainable future of our earth. It also contributes to food production, biotechnology, and medicine, and is therefore of fundamental importance for our human well-being. However, biodiversity has changed dramatically, both in the geological past as well as more recently due to the impacts of modern humans. The resulting environmental changes (both natural and human-driven) take place at different spatial and temporal scales, but the mechanisms and processes driving biodiversity change are often poorly understood. For instance, species and ecosystems respond to changing environmental factors such as climate, soil, and land use, resulting in a complexity of biotic and abiotic interactions. This makes an understanding and the prediction of future biodiversity changes extremely challenging. To understand the effects of future global change on biodiversity, insights from past and currently observed changes, experiments, biological theory and modelling are used to predict how and why the biosphere changes. This encompasses many different disciplines, including paleoecology, climate change biology, biogeography, molecular ecology, and climatology. The course concentrates on patterns and processes of biological diversity at species, population and ecosystem levels, and is thematically sub-divided into three parts (‘Biodiversity & recent global change’, ‘Past global change’, and ‘The future of biodiversity’). Course material will be covered by lectures, readings, and discussions of scientific articles. In addition, the management of data and visualization of biodiversity in space and time is performed with Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The course therefore allows students to get up-to-date with knowledge and skills in biodiversity and global change research of the twenty-first century.
Students will obtain a basic knowledge of what biodiversity is and how it is distributed in space and time. Moreover, they will apply their knowledge to ask research questions which can then be addressed with data and GIS visualization. Students will also learn to comprehend, present and critically assess scientific literature and to present research projects to the class. At the end of the course, students are expected to be able to (1) describe and summarize patterns of biodiversity and environmental change, (2) compare and discuss hypotheses regarding underlying natural and human-made drivers of biodiversity, (3) handle, visualize and present spatial biodiversity data, and (4) present, critically evaluate, discuss and put into perspective the evidence of biodiversity and global change from the primary scientific literature. More specifically, students will be able:
Part I: Biodiversity & recent global change
Part II: Past global change
Part III: The future of biodiversity
Computer practicum
Paper discussions
| Lectures & werkcolleges | 40% |
| Practical | 25% |
| Self study (incl. literature reading, presentation and exam preparation) | 35% |
Activity | Number of hours |
Computerpracticum | 28 |
Hoorcollege | 40 |
Tentamen | 4 |
Vragenuur | 2 |
Werkcollege | 24 |
Zelfstudie | 58 |
Zelfstudie | 12 |
Programme's requirements concerning attendance (OER-B):
Additional requirements for this course:
Attendance at lectures is highly recommended because the material from the lectures will form the basis for the final exam. Knowing the material from the lectures is imperative to pass the course, but additional readings are required to perform excellent. Seminar-like lectures and active work parts (‘werkcolleges’) will be spread in between the lectures, and all of those are mandatory. Attendance and participation during practical components (computer practicum and paper discussions) is also mandatory (from Teaching and Examination Regulations).
| Item and weight | Details | Remarks |
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Final grade | ||
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60% Final Exam | The final exam will be the key form to assess the knowledge and comprehension level that students have obtained during the course. This assessment will be based on the materials provided in the lectures, and on the knowledge and comprehension of the literature and course book materials that students should read during the self-study parts of the course. The students will receive 10-12 main questions (usually with 1-3 sub-questions) in the exam to which they have to provide a written answer. There are no multiple-choice questions. | |
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30% Computer practicum | The computer practicum: Two assessments will be performed for the computer practicum, one based on daily exercises (40%) and the other one based on a poster presentation at the end (60%). First, students are assessed by exercises on each course day. The exercises are assessed based on the results the students return at the end of each day. Second, at the end of the computer practicum the students have to present the results of their small research project in form of a poster. The poster itself will be graded (on a scale of 1 to 10) in terms of content, context, layout, technical skills and independence/initiative. The oral presentation of the poster will be graded (using the same scale) based on discussion and clarity of presentation. In addition, a general grade will be given for the working attitude. At the end of the computer practicum both assessments will be combined to derive the total assessment (final grade) of the performance in the computer practicum for each student. | |
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10% Paper discussions | Given the educational level (3rd year BSc students), the assessment of the knowledge, comprehension and presentation level will be given slightly more weight (3/5) than the assessment of the evaluation and discussion stimulation level (2/5). The assessment of the paper discussions will be achieved with an assessment form that allows to rate several aspects of the paper presentations and discussion (e.g. poor, below average, average, above average, outstanding), incl. information content, clarity of presentation, understanding of the presented material, stimulation of discussion, and critical evaluation of the content. All participants of the course (except the presenters themselves) will be asked to fill out an assessment form. The final assessment (10% of the whole course) will be based on the assessment form of the course organizer (50%) and the assessment forms of all other course participants (50%, averaged across participants). |
For at least twenty working days after the announcement of the results of a written examination, the student can, on request, inspect his/her assessed work, the questions and assignments set, as well as the standards applied for marking. The place and time will be announced via Blackboard (from Teaching and Examination Regulations).
The computer practicum will be used to assess the application and comprehension level of students, especially in terms of handling and visualizing biodiversity data as well as presenting and summarizing the results of a project. Two assessments will be performed for the computer practicum, one based on daily exercises and the other one based on a poster presentation at the end.
The paper discussions will serve to assess the presentation, comprehension, discussion stimulation and evaluation level of the students, especially in regard to present and critically evaluate primary scientific literature in biodiversity and global change research.
In general, 10 scientific papers are selected by the course organizer and handed out to the students at the beginning of the course. Students are assigned to groups (3-4 students in each group, 10 groups in total) and each group has to read, comprehend and critically evaluate one original scientific paper. Students are also expected to read the other papers, to get an idea of the key content and to prepare for the course group paper discussions. The preparation of the presentations will be done as group work (2 hours in the course). Each group has to prepare two presentations: (1) a presentation on the content (topic, questions, hypotheses, methods, results) of the scientific paper, and (2) a presentation of a critically evaluation of the scientific paper (related to purpose, question, information, concepts, assumptions, inferences, and point of view in the paper). And additional aim of the presentations is to stimulate a discussion about the paper among all course participants. The presentations should cover a total 20-25 min for one paper. This includes the presentation of the content (5-10 min) and the presentation of the critically evaluation (5-10 min), as well as the course group discussion (maximum of 5-10 min). A total of 5 hours (with 2 paper discussions each, i.e. a total of 10 paper discussions) will be allocated for the paper discussions during the course.
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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Het rooster van dit vak is in te zien op DataNose.
Maximum of 40 students. The lectures, presentations and written assignments in this course will be in English. The teaching is also in English.