NES2312 : Field-based Ecology: designing experiments, and residential field course
- Offered for Year: 2025/26
- Module Leader(s): Dr Simon Maddock
- Lecturer: Dr Jordan Cuff, Dr Gavin Stewart, Dr Evelyn Jensen
- Owning School: Natural and Environmental Sciences
- Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
- Capacity limit: 80 student places
Semesters
Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.
| Semester 2 Credit Value: | 20 |
| ECTS Credits: | 10.0 |
| European Credit Transfer System | |
Aims
(1) develop scientific questions with clear aims, objectives, and hypotheses;
(2) build ecology fieldwork skills in a responsible, safe and ethical manner;
(3) design, plan, conduct, and report on field investigations, using a variety of field work techniques;
(4) establish approaches to obtaining, recording, collating, analysing, and presenting data using appropriate statistical analyses;
This module provides formative training, assessment and feedback that equips students to carry out their final year Research Project in any subject area, as well as increasing their practical field work, data processing and interpretation skills.
Outline Of Syllabus
A two-week block module.
Week 1: students will learn a variety of fieldwork sampling techniques appropriate to each habitat; common statistical problems encountered when designing experiments for field-based research; critical thinking for defining aims, objectives, and hypotheses for scientific research; EDI and Health and Safety in the field.
Week 2: at a residential field centre students will implement and develop skills learnt in Week 1. The students will perform data collection, analyses, present results, and perform critical appraisals of each subproject undertaken during the week.
Afterwards: preparing an individual write-up in the form of a scientific paper.
Teaching Methods
Teaching Activities
| Category | Activity | Number | Length | Student Hours | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Lecture | 5 | 1:00 | 5:00 | Short lectures on health and safety, EDI, experimental design, sampling |
| Structured Guided Learning | Lecture materials | 10 | 3:00 | 30:00 | Prep work and Follow up to workshops – Includes background reading and review of lecture notes |
| Guided Independent Study | Assessment preparation and completion | 1 | 10:00 | 10:00 | Assessment - group oral presentation using group collated data from group activity - 15% course mark |
| Guided Independent Study | Assessment preparation and completion | 1 | 30:00 | 30:00 | Assessment - individual report using group collated data from group activity - 70% course mark |
| Structured Guided Learning | Academic skills activities | 5 | 3:00 | 15:00 | Non-synchronous - Learn materials on canvas, virtual environments |
| Guided Independent Study | Directed research and reading | 1 | 34:00 | 34:00 | Research project design, methodology, risk assessment preparation. |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Workshops | 4 | 3:00 | 12:00 | PiP or Synchronous online health and safety, EDI, experimental design, sampling, first aid |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Fieldwork | 6 | 10:00 | 60:00 | PiP Residential Course (if permissible) |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Fieldwork | 1 | 4:00 | 4:00 | Local fieldtrip to learn about experimental design in ecology |
| Total | 200:00 |
Teaching Rationale And Relationship
Some habitat and sampling technique exploration and planning are conducted in virtual environments, enabling access to a range of habitats. This prepares students for potential pitfalls, experimental design challenges and safety considerations prior to working in the field. Detailed planning, field data collection and group data analyses are all undertaken at the residential centre, with each team of up to 8 students assigned to an individual staff supervisor. Writing up is an individual activity for each student.
Assessment Methods
The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners
Other Assessment
| Description | Semester | When Set | Percentage | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Research paper | 2 | M | 70 | Project report (2000 words) |
| Oral Examination | 2 | M | 30 | Group oral presentation (15-20 minutes) of results at residential centre |
Assessment Rationale And Relationship
The completion of a piece of scientific research is normally signalled by submission of a paper to a peer-reviewed journal. An individually written submission (85%; up to 2,500 words) of this kind is submitted 2 weeks after the end of the residential field course. Marked by the group supervisor and moderated by module leader.
Oral assessment (15%; 15-20min) at the end of the residential field visit will check understanding and practice oral presentation skills; group presented.
Effective teamwork will have an influence on the utility of data collected, and the quality of analysis and interpretation, so each student’s contribution is formatively assessed by their staff supervisor and group peers for academic impact and industry in the field.
Reading Lists
Timetable
- Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
- NES2312's Timetable