Teaching

Teaching concept

Teaching is an important component of our activities. Our teaching approach tries to follow Bloom’s taxonomy, in which the acquisition and comprehension of knowledge are mainly conducted using online learning and self-study (course materials and recorded lectures are available online), the application and analysis are conducted in class using discussion of questions, problems and exercises, and the synthesis and evaluation in coursework consisting of small data science projects or writing of short papers.

Given the importance of data analysis and scientific computation, all our courses now include practical data science components in form of computer labs and coursework consisting of data analysis projects. Our computer and statistical analysis tool for teaching is the R statistical package and RStudio for writing programs.

Courses

We are responsible for the following modules in the Crop Sciences Master program

In the Agricultural biology Master program we contribute to the following course

  • 1902-400 Genetic Variation and Evolution in Agricultural Systems (Winter term, Course description)

All master courses are taught in English language.

For the German speaking bachelor programs in Agricultural Biology and Agricultural Sciences, we contribute to the following course:

  • 3501-210 Pflanzenzüchtung und Saatgutkunde (Plant Breeding and Seed Science) (Winter term, Course description)

In addition, we host students for a semester-long practical courses in Agricultural Biology and the Humboldt Reloaded program.

For each course we maintain a website with teaching materials, which are currently not openly shared.

We also offer excursions to other research institutes in the area of plant genetic resources and plant breeding, as well as private breeding companies.

Workshops and Summer Schools

In recent years, we organized or contributed to various workshops and courses for master-level and PhD students such as the

  • DFG Priority Program SPP1529 “Adaptomics”
  • DFG Priority Program SPP1819 “Rapid evolutionary adaptation”
  • Zurich Basel Plant Science Center courses for PhD students
  • European League of Life Sciences (ELLS) Summer Schools