Program Overview
Program Overview
The Conservation (Cons) course is designed to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of conservation issues, focusing on their fundamental biological basis and the role of scientific research in conservation management.
Course Content
The course covers various topics, including:
- The goals of conservation
- Threats to biodiversity
- The biological basis of conservation
- Practical conservation
- Human activities and their impact on conservation
Learning Outcomes
Upon completing the course, students will be able to:
- Explain the intrinsic value of conservation
- Integrate basic knowledge from population ecology, behavioral biology, population genetics, evolutionary biology, and macroecology in questions of practical conservation
- Provide a general overview of the population biology of invasive species
- Relate the key variables for optimal harvesting of economically important populations of wild animals and plants
- Make qualified contributions to the "priority-driven" conservation management of single species and species assemblages
- Critically assess information from monitoring schemes and similar biodiversity databases for the purpose of conservation
Teaching and Learning Methods
The course consists of lectures, theoretical exercises, and online assignments. Students will also participate in discussions and presentations of papers.
Literature
The course literature is available on Absalon.
Recommended Prerequisites
It is recommended that students have taken courses covering biodiversity, population biology, and mathematical biology, or equivalent.
Assessment
The course is assessed through a combination of oral and written exams. The oral exam and the multiple-choice exam will be given equal weight in the final assessment.
Exam Prerequisites
Students must attend at least 80% of the exercise classes to participate in the oral exam. Students who do not meet the 80% attendance requirement will be required to do an additional written exercise.
Aid
Only certain aids are allowed during the exam. For the multiple-choice exam, no aids are allowed except a glossary of translations from English to Danish. For the oral exam, written aids, including the student's own notes, are allowed during the preparation time.
Marking Scale
The course uses a 7-point grading scale.
Re-exam
The re-exam will follow the same format as the ordinary exam. Students who were not eligible to take the ordinary exam due to incomplete assignments or attendance below 80% must complete the missing assignments or submit an additional written exercise before the re-exam.
Course Type
The course is a single-subject course (day) with a workload of 206 hours.
Language
The course is taught in English.
ECTS
The course is worth 7.5 ECTS points.
Programme Level
The course is at the Bachelor level.
Duration
The course is taught over one block.
Placement
The course is placed in block 2.
Schedule Group
The course is part of schedule group C.
Capacity
There is no limitation on the number of students, unless registration occurs during the late-registration period.
Study Board
The course is under the Study Board for the Biological Area.
Contracting Department
The contracting department is the Department of Biology, and the Natural History Museum of Denmark is also involved.
Contracting Faculty
The contracting faculty is the Faculty of Science.
Course Coordinator
The course coordinator is David Richard Nash.
Teachers
The teachers include David Nash, Elodie Mandel-Briefer, Anders Tøttrup, and four to six guest teachers every year.