Minimum Number of students: 10
Code: 14331094
Coordinators: Ester Serrão (eserrao@ualg.pt), Karim Erzini (kerzini@ualg.pt) and Catarina Vinagre (cmvinagre@ualg.pt)
In this internship, students will acquire knowledge and practical experience of rocky shore ecology and apply that knowledge in the practical realization of the planning, implementation and interpretation of field research in rocky shore ecology. Students will gain experience in using the scientific method, formulating hypotheses, planning and executing a small research project to test a hypothesis, in presentations of the work plan and results, and in writing a scientific report in the format of a simplified research paper.
Students will work on specific projects planned in groups. The teachers propose general themes in advance, the students plan the work and make a presentation and discussion of the work plan. This is implemented during the stay in the field (3 days), which normally takes place in the natural park of the southwest Alentejo and the Costa Vicentina, but can occur in other coastal regions with rocky shores, depending on the availability of resources in that year. A few days after the end of the work, in the university, students will make a presentation and critical discussion of the results obtained.
15 h of fieldwork + 10 h of tutorials + 15 h of seminars + 44 h of independent work..
Registration on electives (except field and Lab methods) are dealt with directly with the Serviços Académicos. The MBM coordination will not interfere in that process. Be attentive that if you enrol in a subject and later on you want to change you are subject to a small penalty, so think well beforehand on what are your best options. Most of the electives have a minimum number of students, and some have also a maximum number of students. Be sure to coordinate yourself with other colleagues before enrolling to ensure the minimum number of students is attained. Please also contact the coordinators of this elective.
Each group of students will be supervised by a professor or a doctoral researcher, who will be the main responsible for the evaluation of the practical performance, although other researchers may act as co-supervisors and all teachers contribute to the evaluation of all students. The planning of the work starts before going to the field and the final report is delivered after the return.
The schedule will be planned according to the type of work and the tide times.
The final grade of each student will be calculated as 40% from an individual written report and 60% for the performance during the practical work. An evaluation form will be filled out by the teachers, including a justification for the marks awarded.