Milestones, Promises and Pitfalls

Course manual 2019/2020

Course content

This course is the kick-off of the research master Brain and Cognitive Sciences (MBCS). It's an intensive week that showcases the field, has you think the future of neuroscience and cognitive sciences and prepares you to start the first year of your new programme.

An important element of MBCS is interdisciplinarity (integrating insights from philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, cell biology and more). While MBCS students are trained to become experts in their field of choice, they are also stimulated and trained to interact with each other and recognize important features of each others field.

In this course, renowned researchers will give their perspective on earlier breakthroughs in their field (Milestones), where the field (might/will) be in 10 years (Promises) and what the challenges (Pitfalls) have been so far. 

Objectives

At the end of the MPP course, the student is able to 

• understand the challenges of interdisciplinary research, within the broad field of brain and cognitive sciences.
• articulate ethical considerations facing today's researchers
• discuss the strengths, the difficulties, the main achievements, and the main promises for future research in this field.
• explain the basics of the methods and skills used in this type of research.

Teaching methods

• Lecture
• Self-study
• Presentation/symposium
• Seminar

Lectures and practical assignments

Learning activities

Attendance

Requirements of the programme concerning attendance (OER-B):

1. In the case of practicals, the student must attend at least 80%. Should the student attend less than 80%, he/she must redo the practical, or the Examinations Board may have one or more supplementary assignments issued.
2. In the case of study-group sessions with assignments, the student must attend at least 80% of the study-group sessions. Should the student attend less than 80%, he/she must redo the study group, or the Examinations Board may have one or more supplementary assignments issued.
3. The student must attend 80% of the teaching per study unit of the mandatory courses, entry courses and specialisation courses.

Assessment

Assignments

Future Scenario

• The student proposes (interdisciplinary) research that will further the field in the near future

Fraud and plagiarism

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

Course structure

Timetable

The schedule for this course is published on DataNose.

Additional information

First-year Brain and Cognitive Sciences master students are automatically registered to participate in this course.

Last year's course evaluation

In order to provide students some insight how we use the feedback of student evaluations to enhance the quality of education, we decided to include the table below in all course guides.

Contact information

Coordinator

• dr. R. Rouw