Continuous assessment; No exams during exam week in November.
Take Home, open book exam I: Tues 22 September return
31 August 25%
Take Home, open book exam II: Tues 10 October
return 19 October 25%
Performance and attendance at seminars: weekly
20%
Essay/Assignment: Deadline Thursday 19 October
30%
Total 100%
Take Home Exams will be open book, short answer type. Collusion between students is not allowed during these exams. A time limit is set, to be observed voluntarily by you. The reason for the take-home arrangement is to enable you to fit the exam into your own schedule. Use your own words. Direct copying from original sources and from colleagues will be penalised severely.
Assessment in seminars will be based on attendance. In view of the large size of the class in 1999, it may not be possible for all students to present a paper to the class. Presentations will not be scored, but attendance and participation will.
Essay topics can be chosen in any area of the course you choose after consultation with a staff member. Length should be around 2000 words, with marks given equally for :-
i. research (i.e. effort spent in the library; depth of research in
the literature),
ii.expression (i.e. Can you hang sentences together? Can you
organise an argument and its development? Does your story have a middle,
beginning and end? etc) and
iii. creativity and personal contribution. (this is the-hard-to-define
part that involves:-e.g. a viewpoint showing your own motivation
for picking the topic; suggestions for advancement or resolution of impasses
in the chosen research area that come from you rather than being copied
from the literature; your original diagrams etc) .
You are strongly advised to choose a topic now, rather than waiting until you have heard more during the course. Here is a non-exhaustive sample of topics. Feel free to discuss other possible topics with organisers of the course (Pettigrew, Bourne, Pickles, Van heumen), but do it early.:-
"Neural Basis of Sonar in Microbats"
"How does the Ultrastructure of the Vertebrate Hair Cell Relate to
its Function?"
ìHow do Hair Cells Adapt to Prolonged Mechanical Stimulation?
" Form and Function in Retinal Neurons"
"Computational Maps in the Brain"
"The Neurobiology and Molecular Biology of Circadian Oscillators"
"Plasticity of Somatotopic Maps"
"The Role of Dendritic Spines"
"The Role of the Efferent Innervation of the Cochlea"
"The Role of NMDA receptors in Neuronal Plasticity"
ìExpression of Immediate-Early Genes by Stimulated Neuronsî
ìEvolution of Eyesî
ìHomeobox Genes and the Design of the Nervous Systemî
"Hemispheric Asymmetries and Gender"
"Bistable Oscillators in Vertebrate and Invertebrate Nervous System"
"Hemispheric Specialisations and Mood"
"Genetics of Bipolar Disorder"
ìNeural Clocksî
ìOxidative Damage and Neurodegenerative Disordersî
ìThe Fractal Dimension of Time: Possible Cellular Basesî
ìNeural Transplantation and Electrical Stimulation for Parkinsonís
Diseaseî
ìThe Roles of D1 and D2 Dopamine Systems in Basal Gangliaî