Degree | Type | Year |
---|---|---|
Biology | OT | 4 |
Genetics | OT | 4 |
Nanoscience and Nanotechnology | OT | 4 |
You can view this information at the end of this document.
There are no prerequisites.
It is recommended, however, a certain familiarity with the computer environment since most of the activities will be done virtually through the Moodle classroom and the virtual campus, in particular, mathematical text processing programs, creation of graphics, generation of documents in PDF etc.
This subject is taught simultaneously as a first-year subject (compulsory) in the degrees of Mathematics and, Physics and as a fourth year subject (optional) in the degrees of Chemistry, Environmental Sciences, Computational Mathematics, Nanoscience and Nantecnology (from the Faculty of Sciences ) and in the degrees of Biology, Microbiology and Genetics (of the Faculty of Biosciences).
The training objectives are the same for all degrees, but there will be aspects of the subject (type of work, assessments ...) that may be different depending on the course (first or fourth) and the degree of the student.
Training objectives:
The subject is structured around a series of 10 lectures in different subjects given by specialists in each field. The course proposes the completion of some deliveries on selected topics. These tasks allow for the development of simple, but relevant, applications and illustrations in these subjects.
The course topics are:
Lise Meitner and Robert Oppenheimer: Science and Society
Habitable planets beyond the Solar System
Genomics and climate change
Mathematical models of epidemics
Blockchain and cryptocurrencies
Circular Economy
Epigenetics
Artificial intelligence
Science and gender
Biosensor nanotechnology
Gender perspective
The course is designed so that the cast of speakers is gender balanced with a proportion of female speakers of over 50%. At least two of topics directly address the role of women in science.
Sustainability
At least two of the conferences focus on the issues of climate change and sustainability.
Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
---|---|---|---|
Type: Directed | |||
Conferences | 34 | 1.36 | |
Seminars | 36 | 1.44 | |
Type: Supervised | |||
Final project | 30 | 1.2 | |
Portfolio | 10 | 0.4 | |
Type: Autonomous | |||
Autonomous work | 36 | 1.44 |
The students will have to follow the classes and do the corresponding assessment activities. All activities can be followed remotely through the Moodle classroom.
By default, fourth-year students are assumed to follow the course remotely for the parts of the course that are detailed in the assessment section.
Presential learning activities
Supervised learning activities
Autonomous learning activities
The student will have to consult bibliography (books, scientific journals) and conduct information searches via the Internet in order to do the tasks that will be asked in the student's portfolio and the final work. Several tutorials are scheduled in different times of the year with the aim that students will be able tocontact the team of professorsto solve doubts and to keep track of the preparation of the portfolio and the final work. Attendees will also get advice on ICT resources for the writing of scientific texts and effective presentations.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Final project | 0,45 | 4 | 0.16 | 2, 38, 21, 15, 4, 3, 5, 29, 6, 14, 13, 1, 43, 11, 17, 18, 33, 12, 41, 31, 24, 23, 26, 27, 25, 22, 28, 10, 32, 30, 47, 34, 35, 36, 37, 46, 45, 44, 39, 49, 40, 19, 42, 8, 16, 7, 9, 50, 20, 48 |
Invidual short tests | 0,2 | 0 | 0 | 5, 23, 44, 49, 42, 9, 48 |
Portfolio | 0,35 | 0 | 0 | 23, 44, 49, 42, 9 |
The students of the fourth year can follow the course remotely and must follow all the lectures and answer the corresponding tests.
Specifically:
The details of these activities are described below
There are three types of evaluation activities:
A) Individual short objective tests (20% of the final grade).
These are multiple-choice tests that assess attention and understanding of the material.
Non-attending students must follow the lectures through the recordings and materials available on the Virtual Campus and complete a specific test for each one via the Moodle platform.
The students must complete the corresponding tests of all lectures.
The average of the tests will be calculated based on the 10 tests. If fewer than 10 are completed, the missing tests will count as zero.
B) Student portfolio (35% of the final grade)
The student must maintainan up-to-date virtual portfolio on Moodle, where all mandatory exercises and assignments proposed throughout the course will be submitted.
It should also include a selection of materials demonstrating the student’s engagement in the discussion sessions of the lectures, including personal opinions and individual research.
Depending on the type of exercise, transversal skills such as critical thinking, autonomous learning, and the ability to analyze and synthesize will be assessed. These requirements may vary depending on whether the student is in the first or fourth year, adapting to their level.
The average of the submissions will be calculated based on the 5 assignments. If fewer than 5 are submitted, the missing ones will count as zero.
C) Final project (45% of the final grade)
Each student must participate in the completion of a final project, mandatory to be done in groups of three to four students, chosen among those proposed by the lecturers of the various sessions.
The final project must be submitted in written form (electronically) within the established deadlines and must comply with the formal and content requirements of a scientific paper, following the criteria that will be explained at the beginning of the course in a dedicated info session.
In the case of fourth-year students, the paper must be written in English, the presentation must be held in english and the work cannot cover topics directly related to their own degree program.
At the end of the course, several public presentation sessions will be held on dates announced in the course calendar. All group members must participate in the presentation.
Evaluation will be carried out by a committee of professors who will assess the quality of the presentation, communication skills, organization, etc.
Where possible, the schedule will consider availability so that both attending and non-attending students can present their project, as the presentation is strictly mandatory.
For students abroad, presenting via videoconference will be considered.
In any case, it is the student’s responsibility to reserve the presentation dates, which will be known at the beginning of the course, in order to be able to present the project.
In case of schedule conflict, the course team must be notified in advance to explore possible adjustments.
The final project grade will take into account both the written paper and the oral presentation. The final mark must be at least 4 out of 10 to pass the course.
If the final project grade is below 4, the team may be asked (though not necessarily) to revise and resubmit the project.
AI
Permitted use: “In this course, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies is permitted as an integral part of the development of the work, provided that the final result reflects a significant contribution from the student in terms of analysis and personal reflection. The student must clearly identify which parts were generated using this technology, specify the tools used, and include a critical reflection on how these influenced the process and the final result of the activity. Lack of transparency in the use of AI will be considered academic dishonesty and may lead to a penalty in the activity grade, or more severe sanctions in serious cases. Excessive use of AI will be penalized if there are serious errors or, for example, if the style and language of the written work differ significantly from those used in the oral presentation.”
Not gradable
All students who do not submit the final course assignment will be considered “not gradable.”
The bibliography of each specific subject will be given to the complementary or seminar session of the corresponding conference.
The transparencies of the conferences will be available on the Virtual campus.
About the writing of scientific articles see (for example): Cargill, Margaret and O'Connior, Patrick. Writing scientific research articles: strategy ans steps. Wiley-Blackwell, 2009
Familiarity with advanced text processors such as LaTeX may be convenient for the realizaion of the final project in some of the topics of the course.
Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.
Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
---|---|---|---|---|
(SEM) Seminars | 1 | Catalan | annual | morning-mixed |
(SEM) Seminars | 2 | Catalan | annual | morning-mixed |
(SEM) Seminars | 3 | Catalan | annual | morning-mixed |
(SEM) Seminars | 4 | Catalan | annual | morning-mixed |
(SEM) Seminars | 5 | Catalan | annual | morning-mixed |
(SEM) Seminars | 6 | Catalan | annual | morning-mixed |
(SEM) Seminars | 7 | Catalan | annual | morning-mixed |
(SEM) Seminars | 8 | Catalan | annual | morning-mixed |
(SEM) Seminars | 9 | Catalan | annual | morning-mixed |
(SEM) Seminars | 10 | Catalan | annual | morning-mixed |
(TE) Theory | 1 | Catalan | annual | morning-mixed |
(TE) Theory | 2 | Catalan | annual | morning-mixed |