Biology

The Biology course will give students the opportunity to begin to delve into their prereading for their chosen university course, become more familiar with accessing and reading papers in scientific journals, and practise their presentation skills. There is a very broad range of undergraduate courses that are linked to Biology and it is hoped that the approach set out below will allow students to invest time in work that will be really useful to them in the future.

In addition, students will have the opportunity to complete additional practical work which will help them to further develop their skills in planning investigations, collecting and analysing data and evaluating their work.

Lesson Outline: 2 lessons per week plus access to support in understanding content that is being studied.

Week 1: Students to identify which book (or chapter of a book) or MOOC they will study that is likely to be relevant to early topics studied on their particular undergraduate course of choice. They will also research a minimum of three papers, published in scientific journals, to read as part of their study. The use of jstor will be a key resource for this.

Weeks 2 & 3: Following a review of the key success criteria for the presentations, students will undertake their reading and research and create their presentations. One to one meetings will be held with each student during these lessons to review progress to date.

Practical investigations will also be carried out.

Week 4: Students will present a summary to their peers and teachers of what they have learnt from their chosen book/ MOOC and from the scientific papers they have reviewed. Feedback will be provided by their peers and teachers.

Project Outcome: A presentation that presents a summary review of a book on their university pre-reading list or of a relevant MOOC and of their chosen scientific papers. Feedback on quality of communication as well as content will be provided. Feedback will also be provided on practical write-ups that students will produce.