T2G: Sciences

Biotechnology - or the set of tools we use to examine biological mechanisms at a molecular scale - underpins much of modern research regardless of organism. Once you've frozen a sample and extracted the DNA, the handling procedures are pretty much all the same! A good understanding of biotechnological processes will therefore equip you to work in a huge range of fields, and you can specialise into the peculiarities of working with individual organisms as you go. 
 
On this course, you'll learn about the range of biotechnologies that have helped us reach our current scientific capability. Some have been superseded by cheaper, faster, more effective equivalents, while some are so efficient that they're still in use today. Each will have its good points and bad points, often incorporating an element of ethical thinking. 

Elective tutor: Dr Scott Ramsay 

Scott is Deputy Head of SLD, managing the team of Effective Learning Advisers and PhD Tutors who work with students in the Colleges of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences, Science & Engineering, and who provide Maths and Stats support to all UG and PGT students at the University of Glasgow. Scott's PhD is in the molecular biology of heat tolerance, so he has broad experience working with various techniques in the modern lab. Scott has taught for many years in subjects across medical and biological sciences, and also worked on secondment as the University’s Good Practice Adviser for several years. 

Scott has co-authored two scientific textbooks: Writing for Science Students, and Writing a Science PhD (both with Dr Jennifer Boyle).

Introduction to R Studio will introduce students to one of the most widely used open-source statistical environments.  We will learn how to create various objects in this environment such as vectors, matrices, data frames, and statistical models.  We will also cover the various graphing capabilities offered by various packages.  I trust students will be impressed when they see how much information can be drawn from a bit of data.

Elective tutor: Dr George Vazanellis

George is the Statistics Adviser for SLD with degrees in physics, mathematics, and statistics.

Prime numbers are the building blocks of our number system and have fascinated mathematicians since the time of the Ancient Greeks. For centuries they were considered simply a curiosity, until the arrival of computers made them fundamental to our online security.

This course will use prime numbers to introduce students to some of the many interesting facets of mathematics which often aren’t covered in the school curriculum. These include proof writing, clock arithmetic and its applications, the blurred line between pure and applied mathematics and a discussion of some mathematical mysteries still yet to be solved.

Elective tutor: Dr Jenny August

Jenny is the Maths Adviser working in SLD, which involves providing maths support to all UG and PGT students at the University of Glasgow. She has a PhD in mathematics centred on the relationship between algebra and geometry and until recently, was working abroad in Denmark and Germany as a mathematical researcher.  

This course is designed to give you the tools to analyse and evaluate arguments, and to then put that evaluation into practice on various historical documents. In the first class, we'll look at Classical and modern forms of argumentation. This class will ask questions around what constitutes an argument and how have philosophers structured various models of argumentation. We'll use this as the basis for how we analyse and interpret the primary sources thereafter.

Each class thereafter will look at a primary source. Primary sources are texts taken from the time in which they were created; we use primary sources as a way of investigating and understanding the past. Our classes will involve two main components: discussion of the context of the primary source(s) and analysis of the lines of argument put forward.

You'll note that quite a few of the topics under consideration are from key moments of change in Western history. The primary sources are documents that inspired change (good and bad) and that were crucial to understanding some of the developments at that time.

Content warning: we will be discussing issues of identity, race, gender, politics and culture in this course. You might find some of the discussion, e.g. around fascism or around race/gender rights, challenging.

Elective tutor: Dr Mona O'Brien

Mona O’Brien is one of the Effective Learning Advisers for International Students, working in SLD. She works with students in all four colleges, supporting them in transitioning to study at the University of Glasgow, understanding the academic context and expectations, and building key skills for academic success. Mona has a PhD in History, and her research investigates the relationships between the medical, social, and legal responses to illness and disease in Germany from the late Middle Ages until the eve of the Enlightenment.

This course introduces students to important concepts in algebra through a simple structure called a magmas. These concepts and structures occur in many different fields of mathematics and provide a new set of tools for analysing scientific problems.

Elective tutor: Dr James Rowe

James is the Effective Learning Adviser for the College of Science and Engineering, working within Student Learning Development (SLD). He has a PhD from the University of Glasgow, specialising in Category Theory and Algebraic Geometry.

In order to survive, animals need air, food, water, and shelter; they also need to avoid becoming another animal’s food. The selective pressure of predation has resulted in the evolution of an incredibly diverse range of antipredator adaptations across the animal kingdom. The phenomenon of predation and the portfolio of defences prey species utilise to evade it are of great ecological and evolutionary significance. The aim of this course is to introduce students to the field of behavioural ecology, the predation sequence framework, and a range of fascinating antipredator behaviours observable in prey species.

By focussing on behavioural defences specifically, the course will explore how use of defences can be context-sensitive, varying depending on factors relating to the predator, the prey, and/or the environmental conditions.

Elective tutor: Dr Rosalind McKenna

Rosalind is the Effective Learning Adviser for the College of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences (MVLS). Rosalind’s PhD investigated predator-prey behavioural interactions on plants, with a focus on aphid dropping defence and ladybird search strategies. She has published review and original research papers on a variety of behavioural ecology topics. Rosalind has also co-authored the book Presenting Scientific Data in R, aimed primarily at undergraduate bioscience students.

How does the language we use hold the power to change the way we see the world? Does talking about cancer as a ‘battle’ impact our experience of the disease? How can a scientific article manifest as click-bait in the media? What has Ancient Greece got to do with how politicians give speeches? Why does it matter if a Jaffa Cake is a cake or a biscuit? These are just some of the important questions we will be tackling during this course. We will be considering the power of language across five key areas: Science, Health, Politics, News Media, and Law. Each week you will be introduced to a different aspect of English Language & Linguistics, which we will use as a lens to discuss the material. For example, during the ‘Health’ week we will be thinking about the impact of metaphors. Taking this course will make you think twice about the language you encounter daily, making you more aware of the influence that even a single word can have. Nobody can resist the pervasive influence of language, but this course will enable you to encounter language with a deeper understanding of how it’s being used, and why.

Course tutor: Amber Hinde

Amber is one of the Effective Learning Advisers for International Students within SLD, and a PhD researcher in English Language & Linguistics, exploring the rhetoric of health and wellness in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Britain. Amber spend lots of her time in archives getting excited about old bread advertisements and menus for vegetarian restaurants. When she's not busy researching and teaching, she's usually lost in a good book or on a long walk with her Japanese Shiba Inu puppy, who is aptly named Meeko after the cheeky raccoon in Pocahontas!

Science is often thought of as an objective search for the measurable truths of our world, but do we all agree on how those truths should (or could) be measured?

This course looks briefly at a variety of the beliefs that underpin the modern scientific method. We'll discover what rationalism and empiricism are, the difference between induction and deduction, and why scientists are so hung up on the core ideas of replication and falsification

Elective tutor: Dr Scott Ramsay 

Scott is Deputy Head of SLD, managing the team of Effective Learning Advisers and PhD Tutors who work with students in the Colleges of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences, Science & Engineering, and who provide Maths and Stats support to all UG and PGT students at the University of Glasgow. Scott's PhD is in the molecular biology of heat tolerance, so he has broad experience working with various techniques in the modern lab. Scott has taught for many years in subjects across medical and biological sciences, and also worked on secondment as the University’s Good Practice Adviser for several years. 

Scott has co-authored two scientific textbooks: Writing for Science Students, and Writing a Science PhD (both with Dr Jennifer Boyle).

Have you ever been stuck on a tricky academic question? Not known where to start with a big project? Or had a disagreement with a friend? Problem-solving is a key part of university life, both in and out of the classroom, yet classes themselves rarely focus on it.

In this course, we will cover general approaches to problem-solving and apply them to engaging problems from different fields and real life. We will use puzzles and scenarios that build your logical and systematic thinking—skills valuable for any degree. Though some examples are inspired by mathematical thinking, no knowledge beyond a general high-school level is assumed. Join us to build a toolkit for thinking more clearly and creatively.

Elective tutors: Tanisha Kumari, Lorna Richardson and Mahmud Zango

Tanisha, Lorna and Mahmud are Graduate Teaching Assistants within Student Learning Development.

This elective explores the themes of power, voice, and belonging in everyday life. Through interactive workshops and creative activities, students will examine how identity and inequality shape who gets heard in society — and why that matters. Drawing on real-world examples, media, and personal reflection, the course introduces ideas about representation, participation, and social change in accessible, engaging ways.

Students will take part in small group activities, visual storytelling, and collaborative discussion, with optional creative assessment.

Elective tutor: Haley Sneed

Haley is a GTA in Student Learning Development, and a PhD student in the College of Social Sciences

In an era of global heating, biodiversity loss and pollution of the air, land and sea, few would dispute that nature is in crisis. But the question of what nature actually means is not as simple as it first seems – and the answer might help us to understand both how the crisis developed, and how humanity is responding to it.

This course invites you to think critically about nature by introducing some of the most important ways it has been understood in Western thought. We will uncover the “origin stories” of ideas about nature that are easily taken for granted, exploring how they have been shaped by historical movements in the arts, sciences, politics and economics, and examining their legacies in the present day. Rather than asking which is the “right” way to understand nature, we will instead consider 1) which aspects of nature are foregrounded or backgrounded, 2) how this is influenced by the social contexts in which the ideas emerged, and 3) how this continues to influence human behaviour.

Students of all disciplines will be able to draw on their previous experience in class, and apply what they learn in their future studies.

Elective tutor: Kirsten Somerville

Kirsten is a GTA in Student Learning Development, and a PhD student in the College of Social Sciences

This course is spread over 4,000 years of human history, and challenges us to question our assumptions of the world, of each other, and of our popular culture. We investigate how maps are designed to dominate populations through the assumptions they imbue within us, but we also look at how maps have the power to cure diseases, win elections, and create fictional worlds. The course is open to students from all disciplines, and you’re invited to bring your own knowledge and experience with you.

Elective tutor: Rohit Rao

Rohit is a Graduate Teaching Assistant within Student Learning Development, and a PhD student in the College of Social Sciences.

Mental and physical health are both essential to our overall wellbeing, yet we still don’t fully understand how they’re connected. By studying data from half a million people in the UK, researchers can explore links between medical history, genetics, diet, mental health, and more. Using anonymised data helps improve how we prevent, diagnose, and treat different diseases; but how does that actually work?

In this course, you’ll develop the skills to think critically about health science. You’ll learn how to find and review scientific literature, build your own research questions, and communicate your ideas clearly. Most importantly, you’ll gain a new perspective on how mental and physical health influence each other.

You don’t need a lab coat to be a scientist. We’ll explore what it’s like to work with big health datasets—like those from the UK Biobank—and how they can reveal important insights into disease, mental health, and how conditions may affect the body at a biological level.

Elective tutor: Madeleine Hayman

Madeleine is a Graduate Teaching Assistant within Student Learning Development, and a PhD student in the College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences.

In this course we will be exploring the rollercoaster ride of drug discovery from historical medical breakthroughs to recent triumphs such as the COVID-19 vaccine.

This course will introduce students to the drug discovery process and investigate some of the most important drug discoveries of our time. The course will also look at how we have developed drugs from plants and other natural products, discovered antibiotics and vaccines, and what technologies and diseases may influence the future of drug discovery. Importantly, we will also investigate some drug development tragedies we have faced over the years and discuss how we have learned from them.

Elective tutor: Alina Zorn

Alina is a Graduate Teaching Assistant within Student Learning Development, and a PhD student in the College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences.

Humans have long used the colours extracted from natural resources and produced in laboratories to create artwork. To understand the colours used by artists, past and present, the chemistries of these colours must be understood. Chemistry is responsible for the hues of artworks and their degradation and fading. Understanding these properties can provide useful information about the objects in museum collections: their conservation requirements, their history, and their value.

This course will first introduce you to the historical use of colour: the coloured compounds derived from the natural world up to those synthesised in the laboratory. The course will then discuss the chemical analysis of historical colours from museum collections - discussing what information can be obtained and why this information is important.

The course will combine lecture-style teaching and problem-solving group work to understand historical objects. Learning will be assessed by a short essay-style assignment at the end of the course in which students will use chemical information to solve the "mystery" of an objects' history.

Elective tutor: Katie McClure

Katie is a Graduate Teaching Assistant for SLD and is also a PhD researcher in History of Art. Her PhD research looks at using chemical methods to identify historical textile dyes in museum collections. Before starting her PhD, Katie undertook a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry at the University of Glasgow and an Erasmus Mundus MSc in Archaeological Materials Science.

Rehabilitation is an important area of health in this era. The World Health Organization has highlighted how an increase in ageing populations and several health problems make it an important health concern in the 21st century.

In this course, you will learn more about generic rehabilitation, gain a bit more knowledge in the sub-field of neurorehabilitation, and have a go at proposing solutions to some of the challenges in this area. You might be surprised to find out you can ideate out-of-the-box solutions for some of these!

The course will feature interactive teaching sessions and workshops with group discussions and presentations.

Elective tutor: Lydia Jilantikiri

Lydia is a PhD researcher in Biomedical Engineering. Her research is about developing a system that uses virtual reality for arm rehabilitation. She has some years’ experience working in academia, and enjoys teaching and mentoring. 

This course asks a simple question: has colonialism truly ended? Drawing from global histories of colonialism and imperialism, we will investigate how colonial ideologies and practices continue to infiltrate cultures and reside in bodies and minds. Through key critical frameworks, we will explore the enduring violence of colonialism in the everyday lives of both colonizers and the colonized. However, the course will further examine the ways in which individuals and collectives are continuously engaged in dismantling and fracturing colonial power structures through the practice of decolonisation.

Our primary texts will range from poems and short stories to music and film clips.

Elective tutor: Shruti Shukla

Shruti is a Graduate Teaching Assistant within Student Learning Development.