6 EC
Semester 1, period 1
5042TREC6Y
The course consists of lectures, paper discussions, R tutorials, field excursions, and a project that includes both a written and presentation component. Lectures will provide students a foundational understanding of tropical ecology, and will cover topics including: i) tropical forest structure and diversity, ii) forest and ecosystem dynamics, iii) biotic interactions and trophic cascades, iv) carbon and nutrient cycling in soils, v) past, present, and future climate change, vi) spatial patterns of tropical ecosystems, vii) human influence and biodiversity, viii) conservation strategies in tropical systems. Several interactive paper discussions will be held that relate to lecture topics. Students will also make several trips to the Hortus Botanicus in Amsterdam to learn about the tropical plants in their collection, and the role of those plants in tropical forests. During the module, students will develop projects designed to take a current topic in tropical ecology to the general public. Students will present their projects to the class, and also submit a written component. A symposium with the Treub Maatschappij will be organized with guest speakers.
Teaching staff will provide powerpoint presentations or pdf documents. Papers can also be obtained via the digital library. The syllabus will be posted to Canvas
R Statistical Software
Lectures will be given to introduce students to topics in tropical ecology. Werkcolleges will be focused on paper discussions and developing project ideas. R Tutorials will be given during the laptopcolleges. The course will contain field excursions to the Hortus, which contains an array of tropical plants. There will be a symposium for students to present their project work, and also one organized with the Treub Maatschaapij.
|
Activiteit |
Aantal uur |
|
Excursie |
6 |
|
Hoorcollege |
20 |
|
Presentatie |
4 |
|
Tentamen |
3 |
|
Vragenuur |
2 |
|
Werkcollege |
6 |
|
Zelfstudie |
42 |
|
Zelfstudie |
85 |
The learning outcomes of the course will be assessed by 1) participation in paper discussions, 2) assessment of R Tutorials, 3) the written component of the project, 4) a presentation of the project work, and 5) a final examination.
Programme's requirements concerning attendance (OER-B):
Additional requirements for this course:
Attendance at all werkcolleges, symposia, and excursions is required.
Attendance at lectures is highly recommended.
Without informing the coordinator of absence at obligatory components, exclusion of the course might be a consequence. When absence is reported in time and the reason is accepted by the coordinator, a replacement assignment has to be made. Not completing this assignment within two weeks after the end of the course, exclusion of the course will be the consequence.
| Item and weight | Details |
|
Final grade | |
|
45% Tentamen | Must be ≥ 5 |
The manner of inspection will be communicated via the digitial learning environment.
Students are expected to have read the paper before the paper discussion. The paper discussion may be assessed in a variety of ways, including but not limited to, writing a short summary of the paper or answering a series of questions regarding the paper. The assessment will take place before the paper discussion begins, so students must be on time for the paper discussion or they will miss the evaluation, which cannot be made up.
Students are not graded on Hortus excursions, but are asked to prepare a short talk on a plant of their interest to give to the other students.
The final written assessment will be of the blog generated as part of the project work
Each group will present the audio-visual component of their project to the class. Assessment forms will be posted on Canvas.
The R Tutorials performed during the laptopcolleges will be assessed.
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.student.uva.nl
In the schedule below you will find the relation between the amount of ECTS and the study load. Students are expected to spend a lot of hour on self study outside the contact hours.
|
Classes (HC) |
20 |
|
Seminars (paper discussions - WC) |
6 hr (3 hr per student) |
|
Excursion: |
6 hr (3 hr per student) |
|
Minisymposium (conference): |
4 hr |
|
Symposium Tropical Ecology PhD research |
4 hr |
|
Self study |
134 hr |
|
Total ECS 6 x 28 |
168 hours |
The schedule for this course is published on DataNose.
It is assumed that students have background knowledge in Community Ecology.