Teaching Graduate Skills

Foundation Skills for Life Sciences

Research Skills for Life Sciences

BI2005 = Foundation Skills for Life SciencesThe course focuses on developing core skills for life scientists and is required for all students with degree intentions in the School of Medical Sciences and Biological Sciences ~ 360 students.

What does it involve?Wednesday mornings: PRS session 8.45-10 in Arts LT followed by Workshop 10-1 in College Teaching Facility (Zoology Building). Staffed entirely by academics in SMS and mainly by demonstrators in SBS.

Practice Questions on WebCT.

Individual Assessment following Wednesday (College Teaching Facility) at 9am, 10am or 11am.

Major Level 2 re-organization.

3 Discipline courses and 1 Skills course in first semester instead of 4 Discipline courses.

No exam in January, only in-course assessments.

So reduced number of exams in January.

So why did we do it?

It was done in response to feedback from Level 3 students and also supervisors of Honours projects.

Week 12 Numerical Skills

Week 13 Practical Skills

Week 15 Data Interpretation

Week 17 Statistical analysis

Week 19 Experimental Design

Week 21 Problem Solving and Scientific Writing

*****All content is contextualised to relevant disciplines.

The Practice questions are NOT the same as the Assessment Questions. Students cannot learn the answers and remember them.

BI2005 results 07-08

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Students are instructed to retake any failed assessment as many times as needed, “Practice makes Perfect”!

Although they can only achieve a 9 for any additional attempt, means all students get practice, weaker students get more practice and help.

In the diagram above, what is the dilution between X and Y?

a) 10-2

b) 10-3

c) 10-1

Pros:

• Challenging

• Flexible

• Allows all students to reach a basic competence level in multiple skills

• Very forgiving, repeat assessments until pass

• Enables targeted help to weaker students

Cons:

• Huge amount of work for course design team

• Diversity of student ability means probably too easy for some and way too difficult for others

Interesting fact?

In the first run of the course in 2006-7, there was a session on Writing Skills.

The students absolutely HATED IT.

The material developed is now available for voluntary use by first year Biology course.

BI2506 Research Skills for Life Sciences

Background:The Honours project is the highlight of most student’s time at University. Most of us consider it as a true research project.

Why BI2506?

• All Level 2 students (~180) with degree intentions in the School of Medical Sciences.

• Aim is to develop the essential skills needed to undertake a research project.

• Also allows flexible delivery and a different way of doing things.

• (Heavily plagiarised from the Phase I MBChB SSMs, which have run very successfully since 1996). •Dr Stephen Davies is the inspiration for this course.

Course Learning Outcomes:

• To carry out work in a disciplined manner as part of a team.

• To take responsibility for ensuring that the group deliver the research project.

• To understand how to use library facilities to perform a basic literature search and assemble relevant information.

• To understand the basis of scientific investigation and the importance of hypothesis driven enquiry.

• To understand the importance of critical appraisal of information sources and the reality of conflicting views on important research topics.

• To explain and educate your peers on information that you have learned about the group topic.

• To demonstrate basic computing and communication skills to create an oral presentation.

• To answer questions on any aspect of the project following the oral presentation.

• To contribute to the discussion on the oral presentations of other groups in your theme.

• To understand the meaning of plagiarism and take responsibility for ensuring that the group’s project is a true reflection of the group’s own work.

• To demonstrate the skills needed to write an individual report of the project under exam conditions.

• To develop transferable skills related to teamwork, time management, communication and information technology skills.

What do they have to do?

• Work in groups of ~6 to research a topic on “Health and Disease”.

• Prepare a joint project for Powerpoint presentation in week 37.

• Write an individual summary of the project under exam conditions.

• One of the most important aspects of the project is that the members of the group explain and inform the rest of the group about the section of the project that they have been responsible for investigating.

• In the question session following the oral presentation, any member of the group can be asked questions on any aspect of the project.

• So the expectation is that that they have an understanding of the project in its entirety, via Peer Assisted Learning (PAL).

Groups have a tutor who is there to troubleshoot and also runs a tutorial type exam after ~6 weeks to ensure all students engaged and keeping others educated.

They decide how to run it, who does what, who does the presentation.

Set milestones that have to be achieved.

Have a Secretary and a Treasurer.

Assessment:

Group Presentation 30% Tutors of Theme

10% Other groups in Theme

Course Performance 15% Tutor

(Including Tutorial 10%)

5% Peer group

Individual Essay 40% Tutor (moderated by Theme leader and course organiser)

100%

The Resit exam consists of an oral presentation to staff and submission of an entire project report under exam conditions, ie have to do it all on their own.

What is the structure of the research project?

Mostly you will be looking at a specific disease entity and then finding out about the following key areas which will form the common structure for all the projects.

1. Relevance of the disease or condition. How common is it, who does it affect?

2. What are its causes eg are they genetic, autoimmune, viral, lifestyle-induced? Or indeed all of the above?

3. How does the disease affect normal biochemistry and physiology, or structure? (Clearly need to understand normality first).

4. How is the disease treated? What is the rationale for the treatment?

5. Are there any exciting new therapeutic strategies that might be used in the future?

Within this overall structure, different topics will have different emphases, eg if you are looking at “Is Exercise the Best Medicine”, then the emphasis is more likely to be on points 3 and 4 above, while, for example, some genetic diseases, may not be amenable to any treatments at the moment.

Broad themes, (overlap between them), 4/5 topics in each

Diseases affecting the Nervous System:

Developmental Diseases :

Acquired Diseases:

Is Exercise the Best Medicine?:

Genetic Diseases:

Diseases of the Immune System:

One of the most important outcomes is that students realize that, unlike textbooks, which tend to give a straight dogmatic story, real research often seems to be completely contradictory.In some areas, there is no agreement over the cause or the treatment of a condition.Critical evaluation of the evidence and realisation of the conflict that may occur are learning objectives of this course.

Pros

• Students enjoy the autonomy and the responsibility• Very flexible to deliver• Plays to students’ strengths• Enhances academic and transferable skills• Students love it

Cons• Students who register later than first week

BI2506 Mark Distribution 07

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CAS Marks

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Statement Agree/Strongly Agree

Disagree/Strongly Disagree

The course has challenged me 78% 4%

The course has increased my interest in my subject

75% 5%

The course has increased my understanding of my subject

75% 2%

The course has helped me become a more independent learner

74% 6%

The course has helped me develop my group working skills

79% 3%

The course has helped me develop my presentation skills

78% 4%

I feel more confident about undertaking new assignments

74% 2%

I would perform a similar project better in the future

79% 2%

I have enjoyed this course 65% 6%

More examples of research-linked teaching:

Students now in Level 3 who did the BI2506 course last year found it was really useful for the project run course in PY3002.

This year to address the diversity of ability and background in the large first year Biology class’ ~380-400, students were invited to address “Biological Challenges” and develop websites for prizes.

Entirely voluntary, although did have a dedicated tutor. 6 groups started but only two ended up submitting for the deadline.

http://www.abdn.ac.uk/~u03rp7/biological_challenges/

www.abdn.ac.uk/~u01sbk7/index.html

“Take Home Message”

If you challenge students and provide the framework, they will rise to the challenge and really do well at whatever level, BUT it has to be in a subject that they are interested in.

Evidence for last statement: PRS used to ask Biology class their opinion.

Your opinion matters, (although none of this will affect you directly).

There is currently discussion in the University about the Curriculum.

Some of the ideas relate to making courses greater in breadth.

So Science students would learn more for example about history, philosophy, sociology, politics and language.

Similarly Arts students would learn about physics, chemistry, maths and biology.

Please indicate below which of the following you would most agree with:

n %

1. Very much in favour of this idea. 6 7

2. Quite a good idea. 18 20

3. Not sure either way. 7 8

4. Not interested. 21 24

5. This would really put me off Aberdeen. 36 41