Ecotoxicology and Environmental Quality

Course manual 2021/2022

Course content

Research projects practical

We aim to link the practical projects as much as possible to ongoing research, supervised by the responsible researchers. This year 5 projects are available:

1. The relationship between chemical structure and adverse biological effects of PFAS
2. Stream invertebrate responses to multiple stressors
3. Nature-based approaches to lower the ecotoxicity of wastewater
4. The impact of ammonia deposition from dairy farms on aquatic organisms
5. Mixture toxicity of PFAS to aquatic organisms

Learning objectives practical:

• The ability to design, plan and perform laboratory ecotoxicity tests.
• The ability to interpret the results of laboratory ecotoxicity tests and to relate these to literature data.
• The ability to design a conference poster and to defend it during a poster session.

Study materials

Syllabus

• Environmental Toxicology: an open online textbook

  https://maken.wikiwijs.nl/147644/Environmental_Toxicology__an_open_online_textbook

Other

• During the course documents will be available on Canvas.

Objectives

• The ability to name the sources of environmental contaminants
• The ability to describe the fate of environmental contaminants
• The ability to explain the processes that determine the bioavailability and accumulation of environmental contaminants by organisms
• The ability to identify the modes of action of toxicants
• The ability to quantify the effects of environmental contaminants on organisms
• The ability to apply concepts and methods for assessing mixture toxicity
• The ability to analyse the effects of multiple stressors on organisms and ecosystems
• The ability to explain and apply biomonitoring, ecotoxicological risk assessment en environmental legislation
• The ability to critically evaluate the methods and techniques related to the above mentioned specific learning objectives and to propose recommendations for improvements

Teaching methods

• Lecture
• Seminar
• Laptop seminar
• Computer lab session/practical training
• Presentation/symposium
• Self-study
• Supervision/feedback meeting

Learning activities

Attendance

Programme's requirements concerning attendance (OER-B):

• Participation in all practical (computer) sessions, field work and seminars in the curriculum is in principle obligatory. Any additional requirements are described per section in the course manual. Also the possible consequences of not fulfilling this obligation are described.
  

Additional requirements for this course:

Participation in the practical and seminars is required before the final grade of the course can be awarded. Students who did not attend the practical must attend these in the next academic year in order to complete the course. It is strongly recommended that students attend all lectures.

Assessment

A 5.0 or higher must be obtained for the poster and for the exam. The weighted average (exam 67%; poster 33%) should be 5.5 or higher. The 33% of the final mark for the poster is made up of 28% for the poster itself and of 5% for the working attitude during the practical. The working attitude mark  is determined by mutual evaluation of the students within each practical group.

The posters are evaluated by a 'poster evaluating committee', made up of scientists who were not involved in the preparation of the posters. The poster evaluation form including all criteria concerned can be found on Canvas. In addition to the poster, the oral defense, mutual cooperation and work attitude during the practical are also included in the evaluation of the poster.

Assignments

perusall

• Two seminars include a persusall assignment

Posterpresentation

• Conference posters regarding the experiments executed during the practicals will be produced by groups of five students. Deadline is on the third Friday of the course at 5 p.m. Posters will be presented on the last Thursday of the course. The best poster will be sent to an international conference.

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

There is a maximum of 55 students for this course.

Processed course evaluations

De cursus is in 2021 goed beoordeeld en er werden niet of nauwelijks suggesties voor verbeteringen gedaan. Het college neurobiologie is vervangen door een 2e uur over endocrine disruption, omdat men het neurobiologie uur erg moeilijk vond en het endocrine disruption uur van Harm Krugers nu wordt ondersteund met een uur over de ecologische consequenties van ED. De milieuchemie uren zullen worden gegeven door een nieuwe docent, dr A. Praetorius

Contact information

Coordinator

• dr. M.H.S. Kraak