| Unit name | Skills for Life (Sciences) |
|---|---|
| Unit code | PHPH20017 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | I/5 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Dr. Davies |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
None |
| School/department | School of Physiology, Pharmacology & Neuroscience |
| Faculty | Faculty of Life Sciences |
Why is this unit important?
This unit will help you to continue to develop your scientific and transferrable skills, which will support your learning across the programme and prepare you for your next steps. You will focus on data handling skills including statistical analysis and use of coding to support analysis and data presentation. In addition, you will develop your critical analysis skills helping you to read, understand and utilise information from the research literature. An important part of developing these skills will be considering ethical issues in research such as sustainability and equity, diversity and inclusion. Finally, you will focus on employability, reflecting on your skills and what you could do to fill any gaps to help you work towards career goals.
How does this fit in with your programme of study?
The skills that you develop in this unit will help you with your learning within the programme and preparation for next steps after graduation. Data handling and critical analysis skills are important for lab reports, library projects and your third-year project leading to your dissertation. These skills are fundamental in helping you to develop your problem-solving skills, which will also help with employability. Furthermore, focussing on employability at this stage of your programme enables you to reflect on any skills gaps you may have - giving you time to take advantage of opportunities you have at university to fill them.
An overview of content
This unit focuses on fundamental skills that support student development:
How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit?
This unit is focussed on the skills you need to succeed on your programme and beyond. Students will have a greater confidence in using statistics to analyse data, identifying key points in research papers and using that in constructing an argument and being able to reflect on skills they have gained and those they need to work towards for their career goals.
Learning Outcomes
At the end of this unit, you will be able to:
As this is a skills-based unit, the focus will be on hands-on activities, predominantly through participating in workshops. Statistical theory will be taught through asynchronous lectures that lead into workshops where you will have an opportunity to apply theory to data sets with academic support. Similarly, critical analysis will be taught through taking part in workshops aimed at reading and understanding the scientific literature.
There will be opportunities within workshops to analyse and write formative abstracts as well as submit an abstract for formative feedback. Employability teaching will be run in collaboration with the Careers Service and will be enquiry-based, focussing on student-led research into different career pathways. This will then be applied to the development of a CV aimed at recruitment in this field. CV writing will be supported through taught and drop in sessions, where you can seek feedback on your work. You will be expected to demonstrate your capacity to reflect on your skills, where there are gaps and how you can address those gaps. In summary, the teaching on this unit is interactive with an emphasis on scientific and transferable skills acquisition.
Tasks which help you learn and prepare you for summative tasks:
Statistics lectures will be accompanied by workshops where you will apply appropriate statistical methods to data sets. In addition, you will have formative MCQ quizzes to support your learning. Employability will be supported by workshops with drop-in sessions for direct feedback on progress of the project. Development of abstract writing skills will be supported by a formative abstract writing activity that will provide personalised feedback.
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
A reasonable attempt of the exam component must be made for the award of credit.
When assessment does not go to plan
Students will have another opportunity to sit the statistics and coding examination in the reassessment period. Similarly, another opportunity will be provided to complete an abstract and CV in the summer before the reassessment period. If you are unable to complete the group poster activity, you will be given an alternative assessment based on your input into the group activity. If you were not able to contribute to the research or construction of the poster you will be required to write a 1000 word article about a career of your choice. If you contributed to the research and construction of the poster but not the presentation, you will be given an opportunity to present the poster at a different time.
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. PHPH20017).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The assessment methods listed in this unit specification are designed to enable students to demonstrate the named learning outcomes (LOs). Where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, schools will make reasonable adjustments to support a student to demonstrate the LO by an alternative method or with additional resources.
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
