BIOL496-24S2 (C) Semester Two 2024

Plant Developmental Biology and Biotechnology

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 15 July 2024
End Date: Sunday, 10 November 2024
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Sunday, 28 July 2024
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Sunday, 29 September 2024

Description

To examine recent advances in plant biology research and, where appropriate, the implications of this research for biotechnological applications. Seminar topics may include any aspect of plant development and plant response to its biotic and abiotic environment.

In this course, recent advances in plant biology research and their potential for biotechnological applications will be examined. Topics covered in the course include phytoremediation, how plant cells sense and respond to sugar signals, and molecular plant-pathogen interaction.

Recommended preparatory course(s): BIOL352.

Learning Outcomes

  • As a student in this course, I will develop the ability to:
  • demonstrate a sophisticated understanding and evaluation of experimental design, methodology and data in the field of plant biotechnology. (assessment task: internal assessment)
  • access and critically assess the scientific literature in plant developmental and stress biology. (assessment task: internal assessment)
  • develop and trial my own “teaching to learn” techniques. (task: class presentations)

    Transferable Skills Register
    As a student in this course, I will develop the following skills:
  • An ability to manage in a team work environment. Most jobs require interactions with others to accomplish a task to a particular standard and on time. (Graduate Attribute 2: Employable, innovative and enterprising)
  • A greater competence in evaluation and design of techniques relevant to experimental plant biology. (Graduate Attribute 2: Employable, innovative and enterprising)
  • An appreciation of opportunities arising from recent advances in science and technology for solving practical problems. (Graduate Attributes 1 and 4: Critically competent in a core academic discipline of their award and globally aware)

Prerequisites

Subject to approval of the Head of School.

Restrictions

BIOL491

Timetable 2024

Students must attend one activity from each section.

Tutorial A
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Thursday 11:00 - 13:00 Meremere 526
29 Jul - 25 Aug
9 Sep - 22 Sep

Course Coordinator / Lecturer

Claudia Meisrimler

Lecturer

David Leung

Guest Lecturer

Dr Steve Whisson, Erskine Fellow (The James Hutton Institute, UK)

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage 
Final Exam 45%
Seminar participation 15%
Essay 27 Sep 2024 40%


Six Tutorial Sessions in 2024

Two tutorial sessions on how plants sense and respond to sugar signals (David Leung) and four tutorials on molecular plant-pathogen interaction (Claudia Meisrimler, Steven Whisson).

Tutorial Information on Learn
Information about the course, including the course handout and notices along with links to relevant papers for the tutorials, will be placed on Learn.

Seminar participation
Contributions to the six seminars are not marked in a formal sense, but a mark worth 10% of the course will be agreed on by the lecturers at the end of the course. This mark will be based on the following:
•attendance. You are required to attend all six seminars. For this reason, if you cannot attend a seminar you should discuss the reasons for this with the relevant lecturer in advance. If you are ill, you should provide a medical certificate for this.
•quality of presentations. How well prepared were you for the classes? How did you present the research material that was required of you?
•participation. Seminars are not simply about your material. You should be prepared by having read ALL the papers being covered in the seminar, and should contribute to the seminar by asking questions and being involved in discussions.

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $1,145.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see School of Biological Sciences .

All BIOL496 Occurrences

  • BIOL496-24S2 (C) Semester Two 2024