Sciences
If you are coming to study any of the subjects in the sciences (that is, the College of Science and Engineering or the College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences (MVLS)), then you’ll be enrolled onto the Sciences T2G course. This will mean you’ll be completing your T2G course with other students from similar subject backgrounds, and you’ll get to pick from a range of electives that cover the broad range of Science subjects taught at UofG.
The T2G Sciences course will allow you to take part in large lectures that cover some of the core elements of working, researching and studying in our subjects.
In your electives, you’ll be able to select two courses that most interest you. In other words, you’ll be able to create the course that’s most suited to what you want to study, or what you want to learn about. You’re free to pick any of the available electives – it doesn’t matter what you’re going onto study later. Pick whatever you want to look at!
Your T2G course will then have three parts: a core module, two electives, and one assignment. Your core module will run on Mondays and Fridays; your electives will run on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays of each week.
T2G Core Module
Your T2G core module will provide you with the introduction to studying and working at the University. Through lectures and asynchronous (access any time) materials, you’ll be introduced to things like the ways in which markers assess and grade your work, what your subjects will be looking for in your assessments, the underlying principles of scientific research and investigation at university, how to deal with procrastination and perfectionism, and how to write a university-level lab report.
All Sciences students on T2G will complete the core module. Think of the core module as the guide to how to study for and take part in our electives and in your degree!
Elective choices
More courses to be confirmed!
T2G Elective: Biotechnology Through the Decades: From Bread Mould to Big Data
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 GTAs 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).
T2G Elective: Stats - Intro to R Studio
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.