Interdisciplinary Seminar on Research Topics on Earth, Life and Environmental Sciences

Objectives

Learning outcomes of the curricular unit (knowledge, skills and competences to be developed by the students)

Knowledge:
On the most relevant investigations carried out in FCTUNL and their relevance to society.
On methodologies, issues, techniques, difficulties and "moods" of scientists FCTUNL.

Understanding:
Modes of knowledge production and its influence on teaching.

Skills:
Relate the activity of scientists with the characteristics and needs of education.
Read, interpret, criticize and systematizing of scientific literature.
Support and build documents describing problems of science.

General characterization

Code

11389

Credits

3.0

Responsible teacher

João José de Carvalho Correia de Freitas

Hours

Weekly - 2

Total - 28

Teaching language

Português

Prerequisites

General computer and Internet use

Average knowledge of English, both spoken and written.

Bibliography

Derry, G. N. (1999). What Science is and How it Works (pp. 1–323). Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press.
Fiolhais, C. (2011). A Ciência em Portugal (pp. 1–118). Lisboa: Fundac?a?o Francisco Manuel dos Santos.
Gago, J. M., Ziman, J., Caro, P., Constantinou, C., Davies, G., Parchamannn, I., et al. (2004). Increasing Human Resources for Science and Technology in Europe (Report to the EC Conference Europe Needs More Scientists) (pp. 1–182). European Commission.
Rocard, M., Csermely, P., Jorde, D., & Lenzen, D. (2007). Science Education Now: A Renewed Pedagogy for the Future of Europe. European Commission.
Rutherford, F. J., & Ahlgren, A. (1995). Ciência para Todos. (C. C. Martins, Trans.) (1st ed., pp. 1–215). Lisboa: Gradiva.
Snow, C. P. (1964). The Two Cultures: And A Second Look (pp. 1–113). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Teaching method

The curricular unit will run with weekly presentations, followed by a debate with compulsory prior reading and online forum.

Students will be required to participate in at least 4/5 of the conference.

Evaluation method

The assessment of students will be continuous and will take into account the attendance and participation in the presentations, as well as the preparation by each student of a digital portfolio or, alternatively, of a paper (maximum of 15,000 characters, including spaces) on the subject of one or more conferences to an audience properly identified (eg, newspaper like "página da educação" or an opinion text for a weekly or daily newspaper).

Subject matter

This seminar focus will be on research topics in Life, Earth and Environment Sciences.

The seminar coordinators will pick a number of sicentists and junor scientists from FCTUNL that will prepare a 1h lecture, which will be preceded by readings by students and followed by debate. Both will be complemented with online fora.

Possible themes accordingly to present research (May 2013):

Molecular Mechanisms underlying Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy
Microfluidic devices for biosensors
Phylogenetics of Plant Pathogenic Fungi
Cancer Photothermal Therapy
Peptidoglycan amidation: an unexplored step of bacterial cell wall synthesis
Chemical Sensors and Biosensors
Biodeterioration of glazed wall tiles
Model for assessing sustainability of small scale energy production
Functional Genomics and Physiology of Yeasts
Yeast Evolutionary Ecology
Antibiotic resistance in Staphylococcus aureus

Programs

Programs where the course is taught: