Academic Skills for Biologists

Students become further familiar with information resources (library, internet sites and portals) in the field of biology, with specific emphasis on university library network resources in the field of biology. Students will practice communication skills by stepwise learning to prepare and present a oral presentation about a biological subject. Students will practice their reflection skills by reflecting on a written assignment from a previous course. Students will be trained in different aspects of writing skills (comparing an original Introduction to a scientific article with a by AI created Introduction to the same topic) and critical evaluation of the scientific literature. Finally, students learn how to give constructive peer-feedback.

After successful completion of this course students are expected to be able to:

• Give a presentation (5-10) minutes) using supportive non-verbal behaviour
• Prepare and show structure in a presentation and written assignment
• Give feedback to and receive feedback from fellow students according to feedback guidelines
• Use information sources that can be accessed via the library network and to find, judge and manage information and knowledge efficiently and effectively
• Learn how to adequately analyze a scientific article by using a scientific literature analysis form
• Apply the knowledge obtained in the previous two learning outcomes in analyzing the Introduction of article composed by ChatGTP based on the Materials and Methods and Results of an article and the original Introduction to this article
• Critically reflect on his/her own writing skills