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LSC-30043 - Module Specification
School of Life Sciences
Faculty of Natural Sciences

For academic year: 2023/24 Last Updated: 13 February 2024

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 2023/24

None

Available as a Free Standing Elective

No

Co-requisites

None

Prerequisites

None

Barred Combinations

None

Description for 2023/24

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

Active learning:
20 hours of tutorials (debates, field sessions, report writing and exam revision support, etc)
5 hours of guest lectures
72 hours of engagement with asynchronous content (active learning hours) (assumes ~6 hours watching videos, reading core texts and writing notes, etc., for each weekly topic)
Independent study:
18 hours of data analysis, research and write-up of consultancy report
2 hours online authentic assessment
33 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. 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.

Please note that for the 2022/23 Academic Year programmes may be adapted to operate in accordance with a flexible, digital approach. This means that there may be some changes made to how modules are delivered and assessed. The latest information will be provided to you by your School in module handbooks. We endeavour to give you as much notice as possible of any changes and details about the circumstance in which changes are made to programmes can be found in the Student Agreement, available at: https://www.keele.ac.uk/student-terms-and-conditions/

Last Updated: 13 February 2024