Course Information Document
BIOL4236
Welcome to Year 3 of your programme. Courses at this level
should be rewarding and enjoyable, but they require a clear commitment from you
and your active
participation and attendance.
We recommend that you read this Course Information Document at the start of Year 3.
In addition, there is important information about
regulations, assessment and progression (including DD to Honours progression)
in the Life
Sciences Handbook: Regulations & Advice; again, you should
read this document at the start of the year and you
must refer to it as necessary.
While the information contained in the document is correct at the time of printing, it may be necessary to make changes. Check your online timetable, Moodle and your email messages regularly.
Coordinator: Dr Graeme Sills
Email: Graeme.Sills@glasgow.ac.uk
Deputy: Dr Kenneth Watterson
Email: Kenneth.Watterson@glasgow.ac.uk
Coordinator: Professor Simon Kennedy
Email: Simon.Kennedy@glasgow.ac.uk
Deputy: Dr Graeme Sills
Email: Graeme.Sills@glasgow.ac.uk
|
Name |
Email |
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Dr Elisa Alvarez-Curto |
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Prof Simon Guild |
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Prof Simon Kennedy |
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Dr Graeme Sills |
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Dr Kenneth Watterson |
Dr David Morgan, Keele University
The Life Sciences Office is located in
Room 354 of the Sir James Black Building. Opening hours for enquiries are: Monday to Friday: 9:30am to 4:30pm.
Course Code
BIOL4236
Course Title
Pharmacology 3A
Academic Session
2023-24
Short Description of the Course
In this course, you will explore the scientific principles that underlie pharmacology. Pharmacology is the study of drugs and other chemicals that influence biological function in living organisms. It encompasses the effects of naturally-occurring compounds as well as synthetic drugs and considers the molecular causes of disease as targets for drug treatment and drug discovery. Pharmacology 3A & 3B build on the Level-2 Life Sciences courses, developing an in-depth understanding of the structure and function of the human body, underpinned by a programme of laboratory practicals and discussion of current research and clinical implications.
Requirements of Entry
Normally, only available to students admitted to Year 3 of a programme for which this is a compulsory course.
Course Aims
The aims of the course are:
To provide a broad-based knowledge and understanding of pharmacology;
To develop basic practical skills relevant to pharmacology-focused laboratory techniques;
To develop skills relating to the systematic acquisition and analysis of factual information and data;
To develop problem-solving skills and to critically analyse, interpret and discuss factual information and data;
To provide opportunities to practise and improve written and oral communication skills.
Intended Learning Outcomes of Course
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
Discuss the central facts and the experimental basis of modern pharmacology;
Appraise the use of modern technologies for the study of pharmacology;
Communicate experimental, interpretative and ethical aspects of science using oral presentations, written work and information technology;
Plan an experiment and apply appropriate methods to analyse experimental data;
Identify and critically evaluate relevant scientific literature.
Minimum Requirements for Award of Credits
Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course’s summative assessment.
Description of Summative Assessment
The course will be assessed by means of a 1-hour examination (10%) in the winter diet, a 3-hour examination (50%) in the spring diet and in-course assessment (40%). The in-course assessment comprises a lab report (15%), essay (10%), oral presentation (7.5%) and critical analysis (7.5%).
Are reassessment opportunities normally available for all summative assessments in this course
Not applicable for Honours courses
Examination Diet
December and April/May
Total Exam Duration
More than 180 mins
Course Code
BIOL4237
Course Title
Pharmacology 3B
Academic Session
2023-24
Short Description of the Course
In this course, you will explore the scientific principles that underlie pharmacology. Pharmacology is the study of drugs and other chemicals that influence biological function in living organisms. It encompasses the effects of naturally-occurring compounds as well as synthetic drugs and considers the molecular causes of disease as targets for drug treatment and drug discovery. Pharmacology 3A & 3B build on the Level-2 Life Sciences courses, developing an in-depth understanding of the structure and function of the human body, underpinned by a programme of laboratory practicals and discussion of current research and clinical implications.
Course Aims
The aims of the course are:
To provide a broad-based knowledge and understanding of pharmacology;
To develop basic practical skills relevant to pharmacology-focused laboratory techniques;
To develop skills relating to the systematic acquisition and analysis of factual information and data;
To develop problem-solving skills and to critically analyse, interpret and discuss factual information and data;
To provide opportunities to practise and improve written and oral communication skills.
Intended Learning Outcomes of Course
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
Discuss the central facts and the experimental basis of modern pharmacology;
Appraise the use of modern technologies for the study of pharmacology, including molecular techniques;
Communicate experimental, interpretative and ethical aspects of science using oral presentations, written work and information technology;
Plan an experiment and apply appropriate methods to analyse experimental data;
Solve problems of a numerical or logical nature using statistics where appropriate;
Identify and critically evaluate relevant scientific literature.
Minimum Requirements for Award of Credits
Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course’s summative assessment.
Description of Summative Assessment
The course will be assessed by means of a 3-hour examination (50%) in the spring diet, a 2-hour open-book Molecular Methods test (7.5%), and in-course assessment (42.5%). The in-course assessment comprises a lab report (15%), literature review (15%), poster presentation (7.5%) and a creative assignment (5%).
Are reassessment opportunities normally available for all summative assessments in this course
Not applicable for Honours courses
Examination Diet
April/May
Total Exam Duration
180 minutes
Each teaching block will begin with an introductory
lecture, covering the basic background knowledge that will help put the more
detailed information delivered in subsequent lectures into context. Each block
will conclude with a Q&A session, which will reflect on the content of that
block and give students the opportunity to ask questions about any aspect of
teaching that may not have been clear.
These ‘book-end’ sessions will also be used to make announcements and give guidance on any forthcoming teaching sessions or assessments for which additional information is required. As such, attendance at introductory lectures and Q&A sessions is strongly advised should you wish to keep abreast of imminent deadlines or changes to course content or schedules.
The vast majority of lectures in
each block will focus on the core principles of drug action and give you a
solid understanding of the many topics & techniques that together represent
the backbone of contemporary pharmacology. On occasion, blocks will also
contain lectures that are classed as “Frontiers in Pharmacology” sessions,
which will be delivered by expert researchers in the respective field(s) and
will be specifically focused on current pharmacological research at the
University of Glasgow and elsewhere.
We expect you to attend all lectures. Only by attending a lecture, can you learn a particular lecturer’s point of view and the emphasis given to specific topics. Lectures should provide you with the central facts of each topic and act as a guide to the enormous volume of published scientific literature in that area. Lecturers will post copies of their lecture slides on Moodle; these are designed to accompany lectures, not replace them, and you may miss essential information if you rely on Moodle files alone.
Unless otherwise advised, you are required
to be present for the entire duration of each timetabled laboratory session.
The labs are designed to reinforce and to supplement knowledge acquired in
lectures and to develop the practical skills expected of pharmacology
graduates. These skills will be vital during your final year research
project and may form part of the assessment in third year.
Manuals for most laboratory sessions will be made available in electronic form on the Lt platform. More information about accessing lab manuals on Lt will be provided at the relevant time. Announcements and any additional information relating to specific laboratory sessions will be provided via Moodle.
You are expected to attend and participate in all workshops and
Scientific Skills sessions; all of which can potentially be
assessed. These sessions will have different formats, but
are intended to be interactive and may involve preparatory work. Please check
Moodle for announcements and for instructions specific to each session
Tutorials provide an opportunity for small-group teaching
(5-8 students per group) led by individual members of staff. You will each be
allocated an academic tutor with whom you should meet as a group, typically
every two
weeks and at a time that is mutually agreed.
Tutorials may not appear automatically in your timetable, so it is your responsibility to note the date, time and venue of each tutorial and to check your University email account for any changes to scheduling.
There is no set programme of work for pharmacology tutorials and individual tutors may approach these sessions differently. Your tutor may set tasks that improve your pharmacological understanding, scientific writing or problem-solving abilities and will provide formative feedback, as appropriate. Tutorials should typically coincide with each major block of teaching and your tutor may use these sessions to explore your understanding of the relevant lecture material.
Students are encouraged to take an active part in shaping the content and format of tutorials; this is your opportunity, either individually or as a group, to discuss any pharmacological concepts that you find interesting or challenging. Tutorials offer a much more informal setting for scientific discussion than is provided at the end of lectures.
It is strongly recommended that each student has
access to a copy of:
Ritter JM, Flower R, Henderson G, Loke YK, MacEwan DJ, Robinson E, Fullerton J. Rang & Dale’s Pharmacology, 10th edition, Elsevier (2024)
This is the core textbook for the BSc Honours course in Pharmacology at the University of Glasgow and at many other universities. It supports/supplements much of the material that is delivered in lectures during Pharmacology 3A and Pharmacology 3B.
Rang & Dale’s Pharmacology is available to buy as hard copy from John Smith’s Bookshop in the Fraser Building and is also accessible for free as an e-Book via the University library website. Information about other relevant textbooks and scientific journals will be given throughout the programme.
Assessment in Pharmacology 3A and Pharmacology 3B will
take the form of written examinations, presentations and submitted coursework,
including lab reports. A short description of each assessment that contributes
to the overall grade for Pharmacology 3A and Pharmacology 3B can be found in
subsequent sections of this Moodle book. More detailed descriptions will be
made available via Moodle at the relevant time.
Please note: you can be assessed on any aspect of the Level-3 Pharmacology course, including lectures, labs, workshops, and Scientific Skills sessions. This includes any ‘Frontiers in Pharmacology’ sessions.
Coursework and examinations may contain questions that require understanding of the quantitative aspects of pharmacology, such as experimental data, calculations and deductive reasoning. Relevant theory and opportunities to practice these skills are provided throughout the course, in lectures, labs, tutorials and workshops. It is important that you attend these sessions, and complete any associated exercises, which aim to improve your ability to handle and manipulate experimental data and to reinforce basic pharmacological concepts through problem-solving.
A 1-hour* class test is held during the December exam diet
in which all material covered in Pharmacology 3A is examinable. The paper will
likely comprise short answer and essay-style questions, similar
to those that you will likely tackle in the end-of-course exams in
April/May.
There is also a class test based on taught material and experimental skills acquired during the Molecular Methods in Pharmacology course which forms part of the Semester 2 teaching block entitled "Molecular Pharmacology". Further details on the format and content of the Molecular Methods in Pharmacology test will be made available via Moodle at the relevant time.
*Stated exam durations refer to traditional examination arrangements (i.e. in an exam hall on campus). Durations may vary, depending on the final mode of delivery.
You will submit two lab reports, one in Pharmacology 3A
and one in Pharmacology 3B, which are based on experimental work you will have
completed in laboratory sessions in Semesters 1 and 2, respectively. These are
sizeable pieces of work that will require you to prepare a full report,
including introduction, methods, results and
discussion, on the data you have personally generated in the lab. Reports
should be fully illustrated and referenced as necessary. Details on how to
prepare good quality lab reports will be made available via Moodle,
and will be communicated during the respective laboratory sessions.
There are three further items of written coursework; an essay activity and critical analysis exercise
in Pharmacology 3A and a literature review in Pharmacology 3B.
The essay activity will focus on a contemporary issue in pharmacology and will test your scientific writing skills, your capacity to interpret scientific information, and your ability to construct a reasoned scientific argument based on available evidence.
In the critical analysis exercise, you will be provided with a published paper that describes recent pharmacological research. You will be expected to read and understand this paper and to produce a report that explains what the authors did, why they did it, what they found, and what it means. You will also be expected to provide a critique of the paper, i.e. what could have been done better and/or what might be done in future as a result of the reported findings.
The literature review is a significant piece of work that falls in Semester 2 and is linked to the poster presentation (see subsequent section of this Moodle book). Topics for the literature review will be chosen in consultation with your tutor and should be agreed no later than the first tutorial in Semester 2. Your submission will take the form of a short scientific review article that describes the available evidence on your chosen topic, considers contradictions and gaps in that evidence, and arrives at a conclusion that can be justified on the basis of that evidence.
You will give a short (5-10 minutes) oral
presentation to classmates and academic staff on a specific
pharmacological topic, followed by 2-3 minutes of questions from the audience.
Oral presentations are scheduled for the end of Semester 1. Your topic will be
allocated to you in advance. Further details will be provided via Moodle and
can be discussed in your tutorial groups.
In Semester 2, you will give a poster presentation on the topic chosen for your literature review. You will present your poster in a poster session involving all students, during which your presentation skills (e.g. poster content & format, verbal description, response to questions, etc.) will be assessed by one or more members of academic staff. Assessment will take the form of a one-to-one discussion, typically lasting 10-15 minutes.
The final piece of coursework in Level-3 Pharmacology is
the Creative
Assignment. This is undertaken in groups, in-class and over a
single afternoon session. No prior preparation is required or allowed.
This assessment tests your pharmacological knowledge, acquired during Pharmacology 3A and Pharmacology 3B, and your creativity in terms of turning that knowledge into an output that disseminates some aspect of pharmacology in an innovative, engaging or informative way. Examples include pharmacological board-games, comic books, phone apps, poems, songs, etc.
Outputs will be presented by each group at the end of the session, to the entire class and attending members of staff. You will be assessed in terms of scientific content by staff and in terms of creativity and contribution by peer-assessment. Again, full details will be made available on Moodle at the relevant time.
There are two 3-hour* examination papers in the April/May
diet, one for Pharmacology 3A and one for Pharmacology 3B. Each paper will
likely comprise short answer and essay-style questions and may also include
questions involving data analysis. Questions can be derived from any aspect of
the respective courses.
*Stated exam durations refer to traditional examination arrangements (i.e. in an exam hall on campus). Durations may vary, depending on the final mode of delivery.
The John Hunter Medal is awarded to the Level-3
Pharmacology student with the best overall performance as determined by
grade point average across Pharmacology 3A and Pharmacology 3B.
You will automatically be enrolled onto the Moodle sites
for Pharmacology 3A and Pharmacology 3B. This is where you will find
information about the respective course, lecture slides, notes that accompany
lab and workshop sessions, instructions for assessments, links to reading lists
and revision resources, careers information, information about the student
Pharmacological Societies, and lots of other relevant material.
It is important that you check Moodle regularly, including the forums, as this will be the primary means of contact from staff on the course. You should also pay close attention to Moodle announcements, as these may contain information about grades & feedback, timetable changes, assessment deadlines, and careers or work experience opportunities.
Computers are available for use in the University library and also in the Sir James Black Building (Room 515) and Boyd
Orr Building (Room 904), except when these latter areas are booked for
teaching. All computers have a standard University of Glasgow desktop and are
pre-installed with range of useful software packages, including programmes and
packages that you will use in laboratory sessions.
Any students who have difficulty in accessing suitable IT facilities to support their active participation in the course should contact the Course Coordinator in the first instance.
There is an active student Pharmacological Society (https://www.glasgowunisrc.org/organisation/pharmasoc/)
at the University of Glasgow which arranges social events and seminars
throughout the year. More information and contact details for student society
reps are available on course Moodle pages.
There is also a city-wide Glasgow Pharmacological Society (GPS) that comprises pharmacology students and staff from the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde and Glasgow Caledonian University; further details on the GPS can be obtained from Dr Kenneth Watterson.
Students are also strongly encouraged to become members of the British Pharmacological Society (BPS; www.bps.ac.uk); membership is free for undergraduate students.
The five component courses which make up the final year of
your programme are:
1 x project or dissertation course (40 credits)
1 x the core course for your programme (20 credits)
3 x Honours options (3 x 20-credits)
|
Semester |
Day |
Course block |
Suffix on Course Name |
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1 |
Monday |
Core block |
"…4X core" |
|
1 |
Tuesday |
|
|
|
1 |
Wednesday |
|
|
|
1 |
Thursday |
|
|
|
1 |
Friday |
S1 option block |
"…4Y option" |
|
2 |
Monday |
S2-A option block |
"…4A option" |
|
2 |
Tuesday |
S2-B option block |
"…4B option" |
|
2 |
Wednesday |
S2-E option block |
"…4E option" |
|
2 |
Thursday |
S2-C option block |
"…4C option" |
|
2 |
Friday |
S2-D option block |
"…4D option" |
You should devote THREE days per week to the research
phase of the project, normally all day Tuesday,
Wednesday AM and all day Thursday during 10 weeks of Semester 1. The remaining
half day can be undertaken Monday and/or Friday and/or Wednesday PM, depending
on your own taught course timetable and the nature of your project.
You take three Honours options in total: one in Semester 1
and two in Semester 2.
The Semester 1 options are usually taught on Fridays, and you choose one option from the 4Y list.
Semester 2 options are arranged in five blocks, one for each day of the week (4A, 4B, 4C, 4D and 4E options). You choose two options from these five blocks, but no more than one for any block.
Once enrolment opens in August, you choose the options that you wish to study in final year. Please note that the list of offered Honours options changes slightly each year as options are introduced, withdrawn or moved to a different block; therefore, options you see in your MyCampus My Requirements report may not be available for you to choose when you reach final year.
You do not have a free choice when choosing options. The
following factors determine which options you can take.
1. Each programme specifies which options are compulsory and recommended for that programme. You must choose options which satisfy the stated Requirements for your programme.
2. In addition, each option specifies restrictions on admission (“Requirements of Entry” or “Enrolment Requirements”) to ensure that only students with the necessary academic background can enrol on that option. A few options allow any Life Sciences final-year student to enrol while other options only accept enrolment from students registered for a particular programme or set of programmes (for example Behavioural Ecology 4B option specifies the following: “Normally, only available to final-year Life Sciences students in the Animal Biology group programmes”).
3. A few options require you to apply in advance during Year 3. You cannot take one of these options if you have not been approved in advance. Currently, these are:
· Tropical Marine Biology (with Field Course) 4Y option
· Marine Mammal Biology (with Field Course) 4Y option
· Ecology & Conservation of African Ecosystems (with Field Course) 4Y option
· Investigating Biological Function 4B option
4. Most options limit the number of students that may enrol. For many options, the limit is around 30 students but some options have a lower or higher limit on class size. Enrolment is on a first-come, first-served basis.
5. An option may be cancelled if too few students wish to do it or if there are other circumstances which mean an option cannot run.
You undertake a piece of independent work in final year,
either a project or a dissertation. University regulations stipulate that you
MUST obtain at least D3 in the “independent work” course for an Honours degree
to be awarded.
During Year 3, you choose which type of final-year project you would like to do. There are four types of project within the Life Sciences portfolio:
Investigative (both laboratory-based “wet” projects and traditional “dry” projects)
Dissertation
Outreach (both School and Public Engagement)
Internship *
* Although the Internship type of project is available in theory to students on any programme, this will depend on internships being offered which are suitable to the programme. Until now, internships have only been available to students in Physiology & Sports Science.
The type of project you are allocated determines which project course you enrol on in MyCampus.
It may not be possible to allocate projects in line with your aspirations but staff seek to maximise each student’s preference. Your grades from Year 3 may be taken into account when project allocations are being made.
If you are a student in the Animal Biology Group (Marine & Freshwater Biology or Zoology), you are encouraged to think up possible projects yourself. However, you must find a member of staff willing to act as your supervisor.
Please refer to the current session’s Project Course Information Document for more information.
The structure of the final-year curriculum is more complex
than Year 3. Therefore, it is very important that you use the guidance in
MyCampus My Requirements to enrol on appropriate courses. Read the information
carefully and ensure than none of the sections on My Requirements are labelled
“Not Satisfied”.