Learning
“en bloc”
Designing block courses and other block training opportunities
Leaving the regular schedules of the semester behind can be a great opportunity to spend some time focussing on a key learning step for your students. Block training opportunities give students a chance to do a deep dive into a topic or build up a competence in a coherent and focused way.
In this Refresh Teaching event, we will hear about different setups for block trainings and how the lecturers work around specific challenges such as course planning, intensity, and heterogeneity.
Dr. Ivo Zemp (D-BIOL)
Dr. Ivo Zemp (D-BIOL) is a senior scientist in the lab of Prof. Ulrike Kutay at the Institute of Biochemistry (D-BIOL), spends most of his working time on experiments but is also lecturing in a number of courses and organizing a block course for 3rd year bachelor students. These block courses in D-BIOL last for 3.5 weeks, and allow students to gain first insights into a particular research topic and into how research works in practice. Ivo will discuss challenges in setting up and leading a block course as well as different formats and elements used during these courses.
Jorge Alexandre Antunes Pereira (D-BIOL)
Dr. Jorge Alexandre Antunes Pereira (D-BIOL) is a senior scientist in the lab of Prof. Ueli Suter at the Institute of Molecular Health Sciences (D-BIOL). He co-organizes the block course with Prof. Suter and laboratory colleagues, which is a combination of practical work with lectures, discussions, project preparations and presentations. In the course the students learn basic principles of neural plasticity and repair in health and disease. The course is closely linked to ongoing research projects in the lab to provide the participants with direct insights into current experimental approaches and strategies. In parallel to the experimental work, each student prepares a theoretical project proposal that defines research questions, hypothesis, and realistic aims, and applies techniques learned at the course (complemented by others from the literature) that are adequate to reach their aims.
Dr. Victor Collado Diaz (D-CHAB)
Dr. Victor Collado Diaz (D-CHAB) will present the master block course “Scientific Concepts and Methods”. To become a good scientist, one has to learn how to apply scientific methods and practices and equally important how to critically reflect on the concepts and inferences used in scientific research. This course familiarizes students with key concepts from philosophy of science which are linked to pivotal scientific methods of modern biomedicine with the main focus in training students in critical thinking.
