Module BIOL3411: HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT (P)

Department: Biological and Biomedical Sciences

BIOL3411: HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT (P)

Prerequisites

• Introduction to Whole Organisms and the Environment (BIOL1082).

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• To promote an appreciation of how the environment impacts on the health of humans and other animals and to promote cross-disciplinary thinking and problem solving.

Content

• Course introduction.
• Important infectious diseases, Disease ecology: Changing disease patterns through history, A case study of how the risk of malaria in the UK has changed, New and emerging diseases, Disease processes and scaling, environmental change and human health in developing countries, how changing climate and weather affects human health, water and health, increasing population pressure, plant diseases, pests and famines, transgenic vectors.
• Case studies in the environmental management of diseases.

Learning Outcomes

• Students should be able to: Demonstrate how many environmental, biological and sociological factors affect human health either directly or indirectly through their effects on disease pathogens.
• Appreciate the changing nature of the interaction between the environment and health, both in time and space.
• Understand that these controlling processes operate at different temporal and spatial scales.

• Extract, compile and review relevant scientific information from various sources and evaluate them critically.
• Acquire, interpret and critically analyse experimental, clinical and field data and present the results effectively.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• MCQs are appropriate as a revision aid and to demonstrate knowledge acquisition.
• The written report will show the communication skills learnt as well as the ability to interpret.
• The integration of these skills will be assessed in the written examination.
• The poster is the best way of demonstrating presentation skills and the ability to summarise data in a concise fashion.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

MCQ.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University