BIOS9115 ¨C Current Research in Natural History

Course content

This research-oriented special syllabus course combines reading, presentation and discussion of current research topics in natural history. The course consists of seminars including in-depth discussions of selected state-of-the-art topics within the biological and geosciences, including emerging research directions and recent publications.

Learning outcome

After completing the course, students should:

• Be able to effectively present scientific research. As part of the course students will attend a training course in scientific communication, attend scientific talks that they must critically review a subset of, and give formal presentations on their own research at an NHM-wide organized symposium organized specifically for students and non-permanent research staff.
• Be able to extract relevant information from research not directly in the student¡¯s own research field. By attending a variety of different seminars and scientific talks, students will be introduced to research not directly in their field, and be challenged to think about how these research talks/scientific papers may have direct/indirect applications in their own research, either through the methods/theories introduced, or even whether the systems/scientific questions presented may also be interesting in their own line of research.
• Gain experience in leading scientific events. By organizing seminars with the support of other PIs at NHM, the students will gain experience in leading scientific paper discussions.??
• Learn efficient and critical scientific reading. Learn to read scientific papers for their stated hypotheses, whether the methods chosen are appropriate for exploring these hypotheses, and critically analyze the data interpretations and conclusions drawn from these.
• Develop skills to provide and receive constructive feedback on peer work

Admission to the course

PhD candidates from the University of Oslo should apply for classes and register for examinations through?Studentweb.

If a course has limited intake capacity, priority will be given to PhD candidates who follow an individual education plan where this particular course is included. Some national researchers¡¯ schools may have specific rules for ranking applicants for courses with limited intake capacity.

PhD candidates who have been admitted to another higher education institution must?apply for a position as a visiting student?within a given deadline.

The courses BIOS9115 and BIOS5115 have joint admission. Applicants are ranked by the following criteria:

1. PhD students and master students at the MN faculty who have the course as part of the approved curriculum. Students at NHM and IBV will have priority.

2. Other PhD students and visiting PhD students.

3. Students with admission to single courses on master¡¯s level and exchange students

Applicants are ranked by credits in each group; all applicants within 1st rank before applicants in 2nd etc. If admission is limited to a fixed number of participants, admission will be decided by drawing lots for students who are ranked equally

Overlapping courses

• 5 credits overlap with BIOS5115 ¨C Current Research in Natural History.

Teaching

• Attend 10 seminars. These can be either Tangled Bank seminars, STADIS sub-topic meetings, SNAC meetings, OR seminars and meetings at ?kern or Blindern within the thematic area..?
• Students will write 2 reviews on a presented paper/seminar talk (approximately 0.5 page in length) that is on a topic mainly outside of their field. This review should discuss the overall content of these talks/papers and the proposed conclusions. Students will be instructed to reflect upon and propose connections between the research in these papers/research talks and their own research projects, such as interesting methods that also be used in their own research, or how they could contribute their own expertise to exploring aspects presented within the chosen papers/presentations.
• For PhD students only:?Attend Prof. Micah Dunthorn¡¯s presentation course (held online). For PhD students that have already attended this course, they can instead provide feedback (for which we can provide simple guidelines) on a? research talk given at the MSc/PhD/Postdoc day, or on how a paper group discussion was led by another student or postdoc.
• Give a talk at the MSc/PhD/Postdoc Days during the Fall Semester, or at a national or international scientific conference that has been pre-approved by Prof. Micah Dunthorn

Examination

• Attendance at 10 seminars must be approved in order for you to receive the final grade in the course.?
• Participants will be assessed based on (I) the seminar discussions, (II) the paper reviews, (III) the presentation feedback, and (IV) the oral research presentation. All four parts must be passed separately in order to pass the course.

It will also be counted as one of the three attempts to sit the exam for this course if you sit the exam for BIOS5115 ¨C Current Research in Natural History.

Language of examination

English

Grading scale

Grades are awarded on a pass/fail scale. Read more about?the grading system.

Resit an examination

Re-scheduled examinations are not offered

More about examinations at UiO

• Use of sources and citations
• Special exam arrangements due to individual needs
• Withdrawal from an exam
• Illness at exams / postponed exams
• Explanation of grades and appeals
• Resitting an exam
• Cheating/attempted cheating

You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.