Module manager: Dr Andrew Peel
Email: A.D.Peel@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable
Year running 2025/26
| BLGY2220 | Evolution, Adaptation and Behaviour |
This module is not approved as a discovery module
This module will explore in depth, some current, actively researched and disputed topics in evolutionary biology. Topics covered in the past have included ‘emerging infectious diseases’, ‘homology’, ‘sexual selection’, ‘phenotypic plasticity’ and ‘symbiosis’, but will vary from year to year. Topics will be selected according to current teaching staff research interests, recent developments in the field, and the construction of a coherent package for the students that covers a range of approaches to evolution, from molecular to ecological. The evolutionary topics will be introduced by a series of scene setting lectures by academic members of staff and students will then research and explore these topics in depth, both individually and as part of a small team, with support and guidance from the module teaching team. Students will use and apply what they learn to develop and demonstrate their scientific communication skills, both oral and written, via modern authentic formats.
The module aims to familiarise students’ with a range of approaches to studying and understanding evolution, from molecular to ecological levels of biological complexity, to critically interpret a range of complex literature, and to develop understanding and opinions about disputed areas of evolutionary research. This will take place in the context of students developing their ability to communicate complex evidence, knowledge and ideas to non-specialist audiences, via oral, digital and written media, working both individually and in a team. Specifically, students will need to research and understand a few advanced topics in evolutionary biology, guided by the module teaching team. Students will need to understand these topics in sufficient detail and depth that they are then able to communicate this information effectively to non-specialist audiences in the form of a group (oral) podcast and an individual (written) science communication exercise.
On successful completion of the module students will have demonstrated the following learning outcomes relevant to the subject:
1. Evaluate, select and explain important recent theoretical and empirical developments in areas of current research in the field of evolutionary biology, ranging from the molecular to the ecological.
2. Develop and justify your own opinions, supported by experimental evidence, on currently unresolved and disputed areas of research in the field of evolutionary biology by critically analysing relevant primary research literature.
3. Synthesise and simplify information from the primary literature in evolutionary biology in order to produce evolution-related educational outputs that can be understood and enjoyed by a non-specialist audience.
Skills Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the module students will have demonstrated the following skills learning outcomes:
4. Collaborate efficiently as part of a small team to successfully produce a high-quality educational product aimed at a non-specialist audience within a short and predetermined timeframe.
5. Communicate complex knowledge, ideas and opinions effectively to a non-specialist audience using a range of media, including oral, digital and written.
Details of the syllabus will be provided on the Minerva organisation (or equivalent) for the module.
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lecture | 8 | 1 | 8 |
| Practical | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Seminar | 4 | 2 | 8 |
| Tutorial | 12 | 1 | 12 |
| Private study hours | 170 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 30 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 200 | ||
Formative feedforward will be provided within regular tutorial help sessions for both coursework assessments and verbally in an end-of-assessment/course Q&A session on the podcasts. Written feedback will be returned for the submitted individual and group assessments.
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Coursework | Group Podcast (15mins) (30%), which will have a related individual written assessment component (20%) | 50 |
| Coursework | Individual Science Communication Exercise (1,500 words) | 50 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
A resit Podcast would be shorter, produced individually and be on a different topic/subtopic to that originally chosen or set. This option could also be offered to students with SpLDs.
There is no reading list for this module
Last updated: 10/02/2025
Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team