BIOL8700 Biology Research Project GE

2017

4.5

3 x 50-minute lectures per semester
1 x 4-hour seminar per semester
1 x 50-minute workshop weekly

1 Admission into MSCAQ-Master of Science (Aquaculture)
1a Admission into MBT-Master of Biotechnology
1b Admission into MBTS-Master of Biotechnology Studies
1c Admission into MSCCM-Master of Science (Chemistry)
1d Admission into MSCPS-Master of Science (Physics)
1e Admission into MSCMT-Master of Science (Mathematics)
1f Admission into MSCCS-Master of Science (Computer Science)
Must Satisfy: ((1 or 1a or 1b or 1c or 1d or 1e or 1f))

1 of BIOL3003, BIOL3004, BIOL3005, BIOL3700 has been successfully completed

This topic will provide students with advanced practical experience and training in the design, execution and presentation of a research project in the field of Biological Science. Students, will choose a research project and, in consultation with academic staff and demonstrators, formulate a key question, design experiments to address this question, carry out the experiment(s), analyse the data and prepare a written report in the form of a journal paper. The kinds of projects that are offered will depend on the individual research labs willing to host projects, and projects will have to be chosen and approved in consultation with the project host(s) and the topic coordinator prior to enrolment.

The topic will train students in advanced research practices involving identification of important research questions, sound framing of these questions in terms that allow them to be addressed via experimentation, experimental design, execution of experiments, analysis of resulting data, and presentation of results via spoken and written reports. The topic will provide students with training that allows them to both conduct well-designed research as well as critically assess research by others. Students will also learn how to present research results in the form of seminar, poster and journal-style reports.

At the completion of this topic, students are expected to be able to:

1. Understand how to identify meaningful research questions
2. Understand how to address meaningful research questions via a series of experiments carried out independently
3. Understand sound experimental design
4. Develop advanced skills in statistical analyses of data
5. Understand and have practical experience in, how research results are presented in both spoken (seminar style) and written (journal-style papers and posters) form
6. Design, conduct and present small-scale research projects independently and place these into a broader context of the field that they are relevant to