BB810: Research Project I (5 ECTS)

STADS: 04004701

A supervisor contract and project statement must be handed in.

Submission is conducted electronically via https://blanket.sam.sdu.dk/form/103/submit. Submission must take place no later than 1 week after the semester has started, but it is recommended, that it is handed in as soon as possible. The contract must be approved by supervisor, teaching committee and the head of studies, before the project is started.

Be aware that it is not possible to fill in the form after deadline of submission, since the application system will shut down. The system will reopen in connection with the next course registration, then you can fill out the form for the next semester.

Level
Master's level course approved as PhD course

Teaching period
The course is held twice a year, once in the autumn semester and once in the spring semester.

Teacher responsible
Email: dec@biology.sdu.dk

Timetable
Show entire timetable
Show personal time table for this course.

Prerequisites:
None.

Academic preconditions:
Students taking the course are expected to:

• Be familiar with bachelors curriculum in biology or equivalent
• Have academic and practical skills like those obtained in the bachelor study in Biology or equivalent

Course introduction
The aim of the course is to enable the student to learn how to identify and formulate a research problem (along with the help of a supervisor), and once formulated, how to solve it.

The course builds on the knowledge acquired in the bachelor study in Biology and will provide an academic basis for the master study

In relation to the competence profile of the degree it is the explicit focus of the course to:

• Give the competence to implement new biological solutions and take responsibility for own professional development and specialization 
• Give skills to define a research problem; search, with keywords, scientific literature databases for other work whose results support the student’s research project; evaluate the pertinent scientific literature; conduct laboratory experiments, field observations, theoretical modeling, or literature review, as necessary to solve the research problem (if a laboratory project is chosen); analyze data as relevant for addressing the research problem
• Give knowledge and understanding of research topics in biology conducted by members of the staff at the Biology Department or corresponding research institutions

Expected learning outcome
The learning objectives of the course are that the student demonstrates the ability to:

• With the help of a supervisor, define a research problem.
• Search, with keywords, scientific literature databases for other work whose results support the student’s research project.
• Evaluate the pertinent scientific literature.
• Conduct laboratory experiments, field observations, theoretical modeling, or literature review, as necessary to solve the research problem (if a laboratory project is chosen).
• Analyze data as relevant for addressing the research problem.
• Write a report in the structure of a scientific paper. The report should contain: 
• An introduction which:
  1) provides background and rationale for the chosen research problem,
  2) includes a summary of previous work in the area of the research and
  3) provides a clear statement of the specific problem to be researched.
• A method section describing the methods to be used.
• A results section presenting the results of the research (whether literature or laboratory based).
• A discussion section where the results are discussed and evaluated

Subject overview
Research projects can be conducted within any topic within Biology in collaboration with one of the researchers at the Biology Department.

Literature
There isn't any litterature for the course at the moment.

Website
This course uses e-learn (blackboard).

Prerequisites for participating in the exam
None

Assessment and marking:

1. The course is evaluated with a project assignment after the Danish 7-mark scale. Internal marking. (5 ECTS). (04004702).

The project advisor will evaluate the student, based on a written report that describes the results of the research project.

Deadlines
Projects in fall-semester must be handed 31 January. Projects in spring-semester must be handed in 31 July. 

Deadline for handing in projects in the reexam period for winter examination is 1 march at the latest. Deadline for handing in projects in the reexam period for summer examination is 31 august.

Expected working hours
The teaching method is based on three phase model.
Intro phase: 2 hours

Educational activities

Educational form
There will be a joint introduction in the beginning of the semester, afterwards students will work independently. 5 ECTS equals a workload of approximately 125 hours.

Language
This course is taught in Danish or English, depending on the lecturer. However, if international students participate, the teaching language will always be English.

Remarks
The student will need to develop the research project with a supervising faculty member from the Institute of Biology.

Course enrollment
See deadline of enrolment.

Tuition fees for single courses
See fees for single courses.