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The course continues to develop with some modifications over the past two years reflecting the involvement of new instructors. These modifications include additional readings, making presentations in Powerpoint and sharing them on Blackboard. We continue to make attempts at better integrating fundamental concepts in experimental design across the different sub-disciplines of Biology. These changes are appreciated by the students and relevant to helping them learn the process of generating hypotheses, testing hypotheses through data collection and analyses. However, finding an ideal room that allows for group work and class presentations for such a large class continues to be a challenge. The proposed decrease in teaching assistance will also result in a drastic reduction in the feedback we can give during group discussions.

In general the students demonstrated that they understood the process of making observations, generating hypotheses and predictions, designing studies that test this hypotheses, collecting data, statistical analysis, and interpretation. Students expressed satisfaction with the course and agree that it provides a very helpful foundation, particularly prior to developing their own MS projects. One of the suggestions made by students that would help the overall learning outcome was to see more examples of how the scientific process works for actual projects. We will achieve this outcome by incorporating more examples from research being conducted by the instructors and other researchers in Biology.

NTNU:TIA:REST

Institutt for biologi

Department of Biology

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Engelsk

Mer om vurdering

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Faglig innhold

This course aims to provide MSc students from all study programs in biology with a solid background in scientific methods and study design, as a basis for their own MSc projects. This includes the ability to generate hypotheses and predictions, to assess alternative ways of answering scientific questions by means of experimental or non-experimental studies in the lab or in the field, and issues such as pseudoreplication, confounding factors, observer effects and measurement theory that apply to both observational and experimental studies. The course uses an interactive seminar-based approach to provide students with a working knowledge of the various design issues in scientific research. At each session, introductory lectures will be followed by tutored group discussions and design problem-solving assignments, with summing-up during plenary presentations and discussions. After introducing why good design is important in scientific studies, we will deal with how to formulate good research questions. The suitability of observational vs. experimental studies and laboratory vs. field studies will be discussed along with issues concerning assumptions and test conditions, confounding effects, correlation vs. causation, pseudoreplication and observer effects. Details of observational and experimental design will taught and connections provided to statistical analyses. The course will also tackle issues in measurement theory (collecting and defining the correct measurements and the consequences of these measurements), sample size and statistical power.

Læringsutbytte

Knowledge:Students will gain knowledge about:<ul><li>Fundamental theory and methods of science: how to go about to answering questions in biological (and other) sciences</li><li>Different kinds of study designs, and their pros and cons</li><li>How to integrate plans for statistical analyses in study designs</li><li>How to make sure that your data actually answer the question you are asking</li><li>What to think about when planning and executing data collection in the lab and in the field</li></ul>In summary, the fundamentals of asking and answering scientific questions that every student and scientist needs to know and useSkills:Students will obtain skills including:<ul><li>Ability to define clear research questions</li><li>Knowledge of how to test scientific hypotheses</li><li>Ability to make and critically assess study designs</li><li>Understanding of how to optimize the practical trade-offs that need to be made between the ideal study and one that is logistically feasible under realistic constraints</li></ul>General competence:Students will obtain competence in:<ul><li>How to formulate and test scientific questions</li><li>How to create a good study design</li><li>How to collect high-quality and relevant data</li><li>How to analyse and interpret these data</li></ul>

Læringsformer og aktiviteter

Lectures and seminars that are integrated for each topic. Participation in all activities is mandatory

Seminar og øvinger

Study Design

Etologi

Biodiversitet

Biologi

Økologi

Biotechnology (Master's Programme)

Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (Master's Programme)

Natural Resources Management (Master's Programme)

Ocean Resources (Master's Programme)

Biology (Master's Programme)

Lektorutdanning i realfag for trinn 8 – 13

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Study Design - BI3052