ECTS
4 credits
Component
Faculty of Science
List of courses
Choice of 1 of 5
CHOICES4
4 creditsMeteorology, climatology and water cycle
2 creditsMeteorology/climatology/environment
2 credits16,5h
Communication in science
4 creditsSetting up of an educational project UniverlaCité device
4 creditsHealth, environment and global changes
4 creditsScience and Society: history of science, ethics, critical thinking
4 credits
Meteorology, climatology and water cycle
ECTS
2 credits
Component
Faculty of Science
- weather/climate difference
- structure of the atmosphere, radiation balance, greenhouse effect, wind circulation, depressions/anticyclones, tropical cyclones, tornadoes
- general ocean circulation (Munk, main currents, Conveyor Belt)
- geographical distribution and definition of climates
- current climate change
- global water cycle, hydrological balance, water balance, energy balance over a cultivated plot to estimate evapotranspiration
Meteorology/climatology/environment
ECTS
2 credits
Component
Faculty of Science
Hourly volume
16,5h
Understand the weather and know how to use the climato for an ecologist / naturalist.
- climate measurement methods, bioclimate indices;
- Computer workstation: climatic data, modern archives (century), oscillations and trends;
- weather reminders, dominant parameters: from the major biomes to the topoclimate ;
- average climate vs. extreme events, their role and impacts on biodiversity ;
- Group work (restitution): regional themes, shared oral presentation;
- past and future climate changes, their impacts on biodiversity.
Communication in science
ECTS
4 credits
Component
Faculty of Science
At the end of this course, students will have acquired the basic knowledge required to prepare and correctly carry out a scientific communication operation adapted to a target audience, both orally and in writing. They will also be able to design educational material and awareness workshops for the general public.
Setting up of an educational project UniverlaCité device
ECTS
4 credits
Component
Faculty of Science
Universities are often perceived as inaccessible places for a large part of society. As part of the UniverlaCité program, which aims to bring the university to life in priority neighborhoods, the students will develop scientific workshops intended for a school audience in REP.
The EU will offer students the opportunity to:
1- share their own experiences and enhance the value of their knowledge acquired at the University in order to respond as best as possible to the needs of the societal context.
2- to reveal and develop skills in terms of scientific communication through the elaboration and realization of pedagogical materials adapted to the concerned public.
The UE will take place in the form of TD and project follow-up (SPS) on previously defined themes. The socio-cultural situation of sensitive urban areas will be addressed during the first TD. This first TD will also serve to lay the foundations of the UE, to present in details the UniverlaCité device and to make a broad presentation of the scientific mediation.
The following tutorials will serve as sessions during which the students, divided into groups, will have to propose activities to be set up. The constraints that will be given to them by the teaching staff will be: the target public, the theme (which will be defined by the teaching staff and which will be renewed each year) and the need to propose activities 'outside the classroom'.
Health, environment and global changes
ECTS
4 credits
Component
Faculty of Science
The major human and animal health issues related to global change, i.e. :
- the degradation of natural environments, leading to the loss of quality of natural resources (various pollutions) and the loss of biodiversity
- climate change
- the artificialization of living environments
- new therapeutic methods
- the globalization of trade
- the standardization of lifestyles
Science and Society: history of science, ethics, critical thinking
ECTS
4 credits
Component
Faculty of Science
The sciences in today's society are at the heart of many ethical, economic and societal issues. The aim of this course is to make students reflect on their knowledge and practices through a historical approach to the construction of knowledge and through reflections on the bioethical aspects of science, the place of researchers in society and the relationship between science and society. The aim is to make students aware of the use of scientific arguments in society and to debate in order to confront supported points of view in a contradictory manner, and to develop their critical sense. It is therefore an opening course, allowing students to take a broader view while maintaining a scientific approach, in other words, to "lift their heads from the handlebars".
- 7CM = 10.5h for History of Science, pan-historical and pan-geographical approach
- 4 CM = 6h to present the concepts of bioethics and the critical approach that will be necessary for the debates (methodology of the controversy, complexity, issues, arguments of authority)
- 2CM= 3h on the role of scientists in society (historical approach and discussion on possible pitfalls)
- 2TD= 3h on cognitive biases, notions of epistemology, language traps, and notion of proof, major types of erroneous reasoning
- 4 sessions of 2TD= 4x3h= 12h of debates on themes at the heart of scientific and societal controversies: GMOs, Vaccination, Pharmacogenetics and genetic testing, Endocrine disruptors, Feeding the planet, Demographic challenge, Climate change, Transhumanism, Cloning and assisted reproduction, Animal experimentation, Neuroscience and marketing, Biological warfare, Nanotechnologies, ... We start with a press article and the students in groups produce a presentation (participate in the evaluation) whose goal is to propose a historical context, present the antagonistic points of view argued (ethical and scientific arguments), and then lead a debate. Each debate session (3h) will have a theme, researchers or EC will be invited to participate in the jury and propose a synthesis at the end.
In groups and for the duration of the course, students will produce a bibliographical synthesis on a theme of their choice, with a well-constructed argument, illustrated with carefully chosen examples, placing the subject in a history of science dimension with bioethical considerations. The idea is not to just make the history of a subject, but on the contrary to insist on the links with the progression of scientific knowledge and the ethical questions raised.