Field trips and rain – a causal relationship?

One of the sampling sites of group 3 is nearby the large construction site next to Store Lungegårdsvannet. Foto: Christian Irgens

Birgitte Kathrine Sunde and Elena Artamonova sampling for BIO 300 Foto: Christian Irgens

Atabak Mahjour Azad taking water samples Foto: Christian Irgens

Atabak Mahjour Azad, Trond Roger Oskars, and Einar Ingebrigtsen: master students in action at Bondtveit, taking water samples from Frotveitvannet for their group project Foto: Christian Irgens

However, research-based education at UiB means getting your hands – or in this case, often your whole body – wet!

(Click on each thumbnail picture to access a larger picture.)

The Department of Biology offers over 40 courses in its several Bachelors and Masters programmes combined.

BIO 300 is a kind of multi-dimensional “kick-off” course that is mandatory for all the students enrolled in BIO’s masters’ programmes. The course embodies diversity: diverse in terms of the students; diverse in terms of the tool-box of scientific tools it imparts; and diverse in terms of the activities in which the students engage. In addition the mandatory course forms a common baptism for BIO masters students – helping them to bond at the beginning of their two-year journey.

There are 35-55 students depending on the year. These are about 50/50 both young men and women, and Norwegian vs. non-Norwegian. Forged from courses offered earlier, BIO 300 meets a critical demand for rigour and standardisation. The students come from diverse backgrounds with varied skills and experiences. In two years, on completion of their master’s degree, they will leave as a BIO-trained scientist.

The course combines field and lab work in concrete small research projects. In the past few years, these projects have been developed in cooperation with Bergen Municipality and involve various aspects of water quality. The students collect samples in the field and then process the material in the lab. (Some of the analyses are conducted by commercial laboratories – but the students handle the data sets). Thus not only do the students get an opportunity to develop the skills they will need for their own master’s projects, they are also contributing in a concrete way to the needs of the local community. It is a win-win.

Unlike their final, individual second-year projects, BIO 300 projects involve groups of students. This year’s course leader, Professor Arild Folkvord explains that team-work is also an important skill to develop as a scientist: most research is done collaboratively – and most researchers learn from one another, as these students will in groups with people of different backgrounds and skills.

The BIO 300 “tool-box” has 3 dimensions: research project (from design, to practical, to reporting and presenting); statistical tools; and a more theoretical dimension involving critical reading and ethics. The students receive frequent and varied feedback: orally and written. This year the course is piloting electronic feedback and some student work will receive comments via the “track changes” editing options in available software.

Another evolution in this autumn’s course is the introduction of a “science and creativity” theme. Driven largely by Professor Karin Pittman, it is part of an on-going effort to encourage the students to be effective communicators. Science & Art has been an area of particular interest for many in recent years. (For example, read a summary of some of this activity in Nature). Pittman has been able to involve members of a local Arts group, Carte Blanche, in a collaboration with some of the student groups. It will be interesting to see the effects on the course’s final presentations, which are open to the public (in late November).

Folkvord says that despite this autumn’s particularly characteristic weather (!), the students have been good sports and enthusiastic – their teaching assistants also!

Course information: in Norwegian   in English

BIO 300 has been previously profiled - remember that it is just one of more than 40 interesting courses offered at BIO.

The National Education Ministry’s Quality prize (2009) (in Norwegian)
UiB’s Owl Prize for Best Quality Course (in Norwegian   in English)
BIO was also awarded UiB’s best learning environment in 2009 (in Norwegian)

Foto: Christian Irgens