LSC-30043 - Conservation Biology
Coordinator: Ellie Harrison Room: 174
Lecture Time: See Timetable...
Level: Level 6
Credits: 15
Study Hours: 150
School Office: 01782 734414

Programme/Approved Electives for 2022/23

None

Available as a Free Standing Elective

No

Co-requisites

None

Prerequisites




Barred Combinations

None

Description for 2022/23

Conservation biology takes a practical approach to introduce you to biodiversity, conservation and the necessity for protecting species, habitats and ecosystems from anthropogenic impacts. In this module, you will work on a real-world ecological consultancy scenario which forms the basis of your assessment. Through the use of field sessions, desk studies and tutorials you will learn how to produce a biodiversity net gain report for a site of biological and historical importance. This will give you hands on experience of the work that a graduate ecological consultant is expected to complete and help to highlight the array of conflicting interests which have to be taken into consideration when managing the natural world for humans and species. Guest speakers from conservation organisations will be used to demonstrate the practical aspects of nature conservation and provide you with a wider view of what conservation biology entails.

Aims
The module aims to enhance student learning by using an applied evidence-based approach to introduce students to the science and practice of Conservation Biology. The module builds on the Ecology and Environment theme that runs through the degree. The practical nature of this module will prepare students for a career in ecological consultancy.

Talis Aspire Reading List
Any reading lists will be provided by the start of the course.
http://lists.lib.keele.ac.uk/modules/lsc-30043/lists

Intended Learning Outcomes

explain the fundamental principles of Conservation Biology: 2
critically appraise the role of conservation programmes in maintaining biodiversity over a range of resolutions, from genes to biomes: 2
critically evaluate practical management techniques for conservation: 2
appraise the conservation status of a habitat and carry out a UK Hab survey to use biodiversity net gain calculations.:

Study hours

Scheduled learning/teaching:
20 hours of tutorials (debates, field sessions, report writing and exam revision support, etc)
5 hours of guest lectures
Independent study:
80 hours of engagement with asynchronous content (assumes ~5 hours watching videos, reading core texts and writing notes, etc., for each of the 16 topics)
18 hours of data analysis, research and write-up of consultancy report
7 hours online authentic assessment
20 hours of private study

School Rules

Human biology students must have undertaken LSC-20097 (Environmental biology)
International/transfer students must have a module in ecology or equivalent.

Description of Module Assessment

1: Portfolio weighted 60%
Biodiversity Net Gain report
Portfolio comprises: 1. 2000 word "Biodiversity net gain report", assessing a site using UK hab survey methods initially and using this to calculating biodiversity net loss / gain. Every site now has a requirement for net 10 % gain and you attempt appropriate mitigation to achieve this 10 % using the Defra metric. 2. Desk study - using specialist databases to evaluate biodiversity and site protection status.

2: Online Tasks weighted 40%
Online open book assessment
The paper will be released on the KLE as a Word document at 9am on the morning of the work based task. This is an online open-book assessment with an 8 hour window to complete. This is representative of a work based scenario, where you will be completing a habitat management report based on one of the three scenarios given at 9 am. Work will be submitted to Turnitin no later than 5pm on the day of release. International students will be asked to notify the School if they need an extension due to different time zones. Although students have been given significant time to complete this assessment script (9am-5pm), we expect most students to spend no more than 2 hrs.