Biological timekeeping

Master course for biology students - principally aimed at MSc-students specializing in "Arctic Animal Physiology". The course is available as a singular course.  

This course is recommended for the "specialization in Arctic Animal Physiology" masters program with a chronobiology and physiology focus.

Undergraduate level knowledge of physiology and molecular biology is a recommended prerequisites, but not obligatory.

This course focuses on biological timekeeping (chronobiology) in animals, covering time-scales from hours to years. It covers the eco-evolutionary and biomedical importance of innate timing processes, the formalisms necessary for their study and the physiological mechanisms through which biological timekeeping is achieved.  

Local admission, application code 9371 - - Master`s level singular course.

Admission requires a Bachelor`s degree (180 ECTS) or equivalent qualification, with a major in biology of minimum 80 ECTS.

Knowledge and skills: The course aims to establish understanding in the following areas:

• The key principles and intellectual formalisms of chronobiology
• The evolutionary origins and ecological importance of biological timekeeping, and its relevance in biomedical contexts
• The mechanistic basis to biological timekeeping at levels from the genetics to the whole organism

General skills:

• Understanding the process of generating scientific knowledge
• Science communication, orally and in writing
• Review and extraction of relevant information from scientific research papers
• Critical analysis of scientific literature
• Presentation of scientific content clearly and in logical order while using language appropriate for the audience and occasion
• Proposing, discussing and evaluating hypotheses

Recommended prerequisites

BIO-2002 Animal Physiology, MBI-1002 Cell- and molecular biology

Language of instruction and examination

This course is open for inbound exchange student who meets the admission requirements, including prerequisites. Please see the Admission requirements" and the "Prerequisite" sections for more information

Do you have questions about this module? Please check the following website to contact the course coordinator for exchange students at the faculty: https://en.uit.no/education/art?p_document_id=510412

3 h final written exam. A graded scale of five marks from A to E for pass and F for fail.

Coursework requirements:

Participation in the adaptive clock symposium through oral presentation and debate must be approved in order to be able to sit the exam. 

Re-sit exam:

There will be a re-sit examination for students that did not pass the previous ordinary examination.