Advanced Topics in Biomedical Science

A detailed examination of a selection of currently developing areas of major importance in biomedical science.

Course overview

Points

15

Fees

$1199.1 NZD

International fees

$5050.65 NZD

Course offered in

  • Trimester 2

Duration

1 trimester

Prerequisites

45 points from an approved combination of 300-level BMSC, BIOL, CHEM, PSYC courses or permission of Head of School

Co-requisites

Restrictions

Taught by

The School of Biological Sciences

Wellington Faculty of Science

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Course content

Blended course. This course is optimised for in-person delivery for all sessions for this course.
 

Attendance on-campus and in-person is required for:
Module 1 (Statistics) - both statistics workshops
Module 2 (Bioethics) - the overview session and the poster training workshop.
 
If you are unable to attend an in-person component due to exceptional circumstances, you should contact the course coordinator, Dr Diane Ormsby on diane.ormsby@vuw.ac.nz at the first opportunity, explaining your circumstances. Alternative scheduling or alternative assignments may be possible. Medical certificates or other forms of suporting evidence will be requested for extensions or missing assessments.
 
This course is in modular format. Each student must complete all THREE compulsory modules. Modules are delivered with in-person on-campus meetings.
 
Module 1: BioStatistics (Using "R")
Module 2: BioEthics
Module 3: mRNA vaccine development

 
All students complete all three modules.

 

In this course you gain tools to examine and communicate concepts within currently developing areas of major importance to biomedical science.
 

In line with the University Academic Integrity Policy the reuse of a student's own work (i.e., work that has previously been submitted for another assessment task in the same or different course) will be prohibited for this course.

Course learning objectives

Students who pass this course will be able to:

  1. Provide detailed descriptions of current biomedical developments in selected subject areas.

  2. Obtain material pertinent to a given topic from primary and secondary literature sources.

  3. Assess and analyze information/results pertinent to the selected topics.

  4. Synthesize information from diverse, and sometimes contradictory, sources into a reasoned discussion.

  5. Formulate hypotheses from evidence in the topics studied.

  6. Communicate scientific information using a variety of media to different audiences.

  7. Apply the skills and knowledge obtained to a range of new situations.

Available offerings

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Offering CRN 19799

This course outline is provisional and subject to change until the course commences.

Duration

10 July 2023 - 5 November 2023

Starts

Trimester 2

Campus

Kelburn

Lecture start times

Wednesday - 15:10, 15:10

People

Lecturers

Dr Diane Ormsby's portrait'

Dr Diane Ormsby

Coordinator

Dr Lisa Connor's portrait'

Dr Lisa Connor

Dr Lisa Woods's portrait'

Dr Lisa Woods

Schedule

In-person course. This course is optimised for in-person delivery and requires attendance at all sessions for all modules.
 
If you are unable to attend an in-person component due to exceptional circumstances, you should contact the course coordinator at the first opportunity, explaining your circumstances. Alternative scheduling or alternative assignments may be possible.
 
This course is in modular format. Each student must complete all THREE compulsory modules. Modules are delivered with in-person on-campus meetings.
 
Module 1: BioStatistics (Using "R")
Module 2: BioEthics
Module 3:mRNA vaccine development

 
All students complete all three modules.

  • Week 0

    Lecture

    Science & Ethics (Module 2) during 2nd week of mid-trimester break
    Email Diane to set up a 1-hour poster feedback session either in-person on campus or on the course zoom.

    Science & Ethics (Module 2) during 2nd week of mid-trimester break
    Email Diane to set up a 1-hour poster feedback session either in-person on campus or on the course zoom.

    Diane Ormsby

    Assessment

    mRNA vaccine development (Module 3) - short review article due during assessment period (20%) Wed 25th October

    mRNA vaccine development (Module 3) - short review article due during assessment period (20%) Wed 25th October

    Wayne Patrick

    Dr Lisa Connot

    Wednesday 25th October (20%)

  • Week 1

    Lecture

    Introduction to the course &
    Study Design and Statistics - Meeting

    Wednesday 12th July in KK203 from 3:10-5pm

    Lisa Woods

    Dr Diane Ormsby

  • Week 2

    Lecture

    Study Design & Statistics - Meeting

    Wednesday 19th July in KK203 from 3:10-5pm

    Lisa Woods

  • Week 3

    Lecture

    Study Design & Statistics - Meeting

    Wednesday 26th July in KK203 from 3:10-5pm

    Lisa Woods

    Assessment

     Study Design & Statistics - Hand in Statistics Assignment 1 (15%) Due Wednesday 26th July 5pm

     Study Design & Statistics - Hand in Statistics Assignment 1 (15%) Due Wednesday 26th July 5pm

    Lisa Woods

    Wednesday 26th July 5pm (15%)

  • Week 4

    Lecture

    Study Design & Statistics - Meeting

    Wednesday 2nd August in KK203 from 3:10-5pm

    Lisa Woods

    Assessment

    Study Design & Statistics - Hand in Statistics Assignment 2 (20%)

    Study Design & Statistics - Hand in Statistics Assignment 2 (20%) Due Wednesday 9th August 5pm 2023

    Lisa Woods

    Wednesday 9th August 5pm (20%)

  • Week 5

    Lecture

    Science & Ethics (Module 2) - Overview and Topic allocation
    & Pecha Kucha training

    Wednesday 9th August in KK203 from 3:10-5pm

    Diane Ormsby

  • Week 6

    Lecture

    Science & Ethics (Module 2) - Poster training

    Wednesday 16th August in KK203 from 3:10-5pm

    Diane Ormsby

  • Week 7

    Lecture

    Science & Ethics (Module 2) - Poster feedback session
    NOTE: If you wish to have additional poster feedback sesssion prior ot submission of your poster, email diane.ormsby@vuw.ac.nz

    Wednesday 6th September in KK203 from 3:10-5pm

    Assessment

    Science & Ethics (Module 2) - Poster in PDF format due Friday 8th September 5pm (25%)

    Science & Ethics (Module 2) - Poster in PDF format due Friday 8th September 5pm (25%)

    Diane Ormsby

    Friday 8th September 5pm (25%)

  • Week 8

    Assessment

    Science & Ethics (Module 2) - Pecha Kucha in powerpoint format due Tuesday 12th September 5pm (15%)

    Science & Ethics (Module 2) - Pecha Kucha in powerpoint format due Tuesday 12th September 5pm (15%)

    Diane Ormsby

    Tuesday 12th September 5pm (15%)

    Lecture

    Science & Ethics (Module 2) - Pecha Kucha presentations 6 mins 40 secs per student (20 slides x 20 seconds each + one title slide)
    & Poster viewing

    Wednesday 13th September in KK203 from 3:10-5pm

    Diane Ormsby

  • Week 9

    Lecture

    mRNA vaccine development (Module 3) - Introduction/Overview

    Wednesday 20th September in KK203 from 3:10-5pm

    Lisa Connor

    Dr Wayne Patrick

  • Week 10

    Lecture

    Designer vaccines with mRNA technology (Module 3) - Group discussion class exercise. Class participation 5%

    Wednesday 27th September in KK203 from 3:10-5pm
     
    Group discussion class exercise. Class participation 5%

    Wayne Patrick

    Dr Lisa Connor

    Wednesday 27th September in class discussion (5%)

  • Week 11

    Lecture

    mRNA vaccine development (Module 3) - No lecture - opportunity to work on assignment - a short reveiw article

    Wednesday 4th October in KK203 from 3:10-5pm

    Lisa Connor

    Dr Waye Patrick

  • Week 12

    Lecture

    mRNA vaccine development (Module 3)- No classes this week

    mRNA vaccine development (Module 3)- No classes this week

10 July 2023
Course begins

10 July 2023 to 13 October 2023
Teaching
21 August 2023 to 3 September 2023
Break
16 October 2023 to 19 October 2023
Study period
20 October 2023 to 4 November 2023
Exam period
5 November 2023
Course ends

  • 10 July 2023 - 15 October 2023

    • Wednesday
      • 15:10 - 17:00 – 203, New Kirk, Kelburn

Teaching format

PLEASE NOTE: This course continues over the mid-trimester break. Students each book a one-hour zoom feedback session on their poster with Diane Ormsby on the class zoom link in the second week of the mid-trimester break (week of 28th August 2023).
 
The class zoom link is: https://vuw.zoom.us/my/bmsc406

 
Blended course. This course is optimised for in-person delivery for all sessions for this course.
Attendance on-campus and in-person is required for:
Module 1 (Statistics using "R") - both statistics workshops
Module 2 (Bioethics) - the overview session and the poster training workshop.
 
If you are unable to attend an in-person component due to exceptional circumstances, you should contact the course coordinator, Dr Diane Ormsby on diane.ormsby@vuw.ac.nz at the first opportunity, explaining your circumstances. Alternative scheduling or alternative assignments may be possible. Medical certificates or other forms of suporting evidence will be requested for extensions or missing assessments.
 
This course is in modular format. Each student must complete all THREE compulsory modules. Modules are delivered with in-person on-campus meetings. Lectures/workshops will be recorded.
 
Module 1: BioStatistics (Using "R")
Module 2: BioEthics
Module 3: mRNA vaccine development
 
All students complete all three modules.
 

In line with the University Academic Integrity Policy the reuse of a student's own work (i.e., work that has previously been submitted for another assessment task in the same or different course) will be prohibited for this course.

Workload

This is a 15 point course and therefore has a workload of 150 hours. Students are required to attend all THREE modules. Expect to spend on average 150 hours attending class, reading, or preparing the assessments for this class.
 
PLEASE NOTE: This course continues over the mid-trimester break. Students each book a one-hour zoom feedback session on their poster with Diane Ormsby on the class zoom link in the second week of the mid-trimester break (week of 28th August 2023).
 
The class zoom link is: https://vuw.zoom.us/my/bmsc406

Texts

Required

For each module topic, research papers may be recommended by the staff member responsible for the topic. However, students must also utilise pertinent publication search engines to gather a comprehensive body of information for each topic.

There are no required texts for this offering.

Recommended

Required materials and equipment

Laptop or electronic device for use during Module 1 (Statistics), and the workshops/feedback sessions for Module 2 (Bioethics).
 
Please email the course coordinator Dr Diane Ormsby on diane.ormsby@vuw.ac.nz if this is an issue for you.

Assessment

The final grade for the course will be derived from the marks from the individual modules.
Each student will complete all THREE modules:  
 
The compulsory modules are worth:
35% (Module 1: BioStatistics)
40% (Module 2: BioEthics)
25% (Module 3: mRNA vaccine development).
 
Students must participate in ALL THREE modules.

  • Study design & statistics (Module 1) - Statistics Assignment 1

    Due: Wednesday 26th July 2023 5pm

    CLO:

    • 3,
    • 5,
    • 7,

    Mark: 15%

  • Study design & statistics (Module 1) - Statistics Assignment 2

    Due: Wednesday 9th August 2023 5pm

    CLO:

    • 3,
    • 5,
    • 7,

    Mark: 20%

  • Science & Ethics (Module 2) - Poster
     
    Graded on format, content, referencing, presentation & originality

    Due: Friday 8th Sept 2023 5pm

    CLO:

    • 1,
    • 2,
    • 3,
    • 4,
    • 5,
    • 6,
    • 7,

    Mark: 15%

  • Science & Ethics (Module 2) - Pecha Kucha
     
    Graded on clarity, communication, content & audience engagement

    Due: Tuesday 12th Sept 5pm

    CLO:

    • 1,
    • 2,
    • 3,
    • 4,
    • 5,
    • 6,
    • 7,

    Mark: 25%

  • mRNA vaccine development (Module 3) - Group discussion class exercise
    Graded on participation, communication, content

    Due: Wednesday 27th September 2023

    CLO:

    • 1,
    • 3,
    • 4,
    • 5,

    Mark: 5%

  • mRNA vaccine development (Module 3) - Short review article

    Due: During assessment period Wednesday 25th October 5pm

    CLO:

    • 1,
    • 2,
    • 3,
    • 4,
    • 5,
    • 7,

    Mark: 20%

Mandatory requirements

In addition to achieving an overall pass mark of at least 50%, students must:

  • Participate in ALL three compulsory modules, or seek exemption due to exceptional personal circumstances. The course co-ordinator will request supporting documentation/medical certificate if a student does not attend any session in this course and/or if an assessment is not submitted.

If you believe that exceptional circumstances may prevent you from meeting the mandatory course requirements, contact the Course Coordinator for advice as soon as possible.

Marking criteria

Will be available on Nuku.

Extension

Medical certificates or other forms of supporting evidence will be requested for extensions or missing assessments. Penalties may be incurred by students who hand in work past the due date, with the potential for 5% of the grade for the assignment deducted for each day the assignment is late.

Penalties

Medical certificates or other forms of supporting evidence will be requested for extensions or missing assessments. Penalties may be incurred by students who hand in work past the due date, with the potential for 5% of the grade for the assignment deducted for each day the assignment is late.

Communication and additional information

All additional information will be communicated via Nuku.

Student feedback

In 2022 BMSC406 course feedback:
100% of students agreed or strongly agreed the course was well organized
100% of students agreed or strongly agreed objectives were clearly communicated
 
Feedback to students will include discussion and written comments on marked work. In some modules, specified times are allotted for seeking and receiving formative feedback before the assessment is submitted for final summative feedback.
 
Students are encouraged to seek feedback from the lecturers and to discuss ways to improve/optimize their performance and understanding. Individual discussions on performance may be booked with staff at the request of a student.

You can view Student course feedback collected for the University courses from the last completed trimester for which feedback was collected

Class representative

The class representative provides a useful way to communicate feedback to the teaching staff during the course. They also work with the VUWSA Education Office on any academic issues that arise in their course. Reps are elected by students by the third week of classes every trimester. Being a rep requires a weekly commitment.

The Use of Te Reo Māori for Assessment Policy

Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington values te reo Māori. Students who wish to submit any of their assessments in te reo Māori must refer to The Use of Te Reo Māori for Assessment Policy - PDF 134kb

He mea nui te reo Māori ki Te Herenga Waka. Ki te pīrangi koe ki te tuhituhi i ō aro matawai i roto i te reo Māori, tēnā me mātua whakapā atu ki te kaupapa here, The Use of Te Reo Māori for Assessment Policy - PDF 134kb

Course additions and withdrawals

If you want to add or drop a course you need to make sure you follow the correct process.

Important information

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