Admission requirements
BSc in biology or related disciplines.
Description
This course will introduce students to unique urbanly environments and how these differ ecologically from non-urban environments. Via lectures, literature study, experiments, excursions, and field practicals, students will be acquainted with characteristic urban biodiversity, urban ecosystems, and urban ecological processes, and learn to recognize urban evolutionary pressures that may or may not result in evolutionary change, within cities, across cities, and across urban-rural gradients. Special attention will be paid to how urban ecological and evolutionary insights can be applied in urban (green) planning, urban architecture, and urban conservation.
Course Objectives
After completion of this course, students can:
- Identify a selection of Dutch urban organisms and ecological communities
- Classify environmental parameters and regimes that are unique to urban environments
- Explain how uniquely urban ecological processes work
- Argue how these processes will result in evolutionary pressures
- Design field and lab experiments to test these predictions
- Apply urban ecological and evolutionary understanding to problems of urban design and planning
Timetable
In MyTimetable, you can find all course and programme schedules, allowing you to create your personal timetable. Activities for which you have enrolled via MyStudyMap will automatically appear in your timetable.
Additionally, you can easily link MyTimetable to a calendar app on your phone, and schedule changes will be automatically updated in your calendar. You can also choose to receive email notifications about schedule changes. You can enable notifications in Settings after logging in.
Questions? Watch the video, read the instructions, or contact the ISSC helpdesk.
Note: Joint Degree students from Leiden/Delft need to combine information from both the Leiden and Delft MyTimetables to see a complete schedule. This video explains how to do it.
Mode of instruction
Lectures, guest lectures, field and lab practicals, self-study, mini research projects
Assessment method
A. Individual grading: Throughout the course, each student will write two blogs on a topic of their choice for the blog Life in the City. These will be graded by the course coordinators.
B. Individual grading: Students are expected to keep a lab journal throughout the course. Two random entries of these will be graded individually.
C. Group grading: in three of the sessions, groups of students will do a mini project, which will result in a short presentation and / or a small report. These will be used to determine group grades.
D. Final grading. The final grade for each student will be the average of group and individual grades.
Attendance of all sessions is compulsory. If you cannot attend, please inform the coordinator of the day and they will assign you a replacement activity.
Minimum grade:
Courses require a minimum, unrounded 5.5 grade to complete.
If a course has 2 or more written partial exams, the minimum grade only applies to the weighted average of the exams.
For partial grades from components other than exams (e.g. practicals, seminars, writing assignments), the bottom grade does apply to the individual components.
Please refer to the Student Charter for an overview of regulations.
Reading list
Szulkin, M., Munshi-South, J., & Charmantier, A. (Eds.). (2020). Urban evolutionary biology. Oxford University Press, USA.
Schilthuizen, M. (2019). Darwin comes to town: How the urban jungle drives evolution. Picador
Registration
As a student, you are responsible for enrolling on time through MyStudyMap.
In this short video, you can see step-by-step how to enrol for courses in MyStudyMap.
Extensive information about the operation of MyStudyMap can be found here.
There are two enrolment periods per year:
Enrolment for the fall opens in July
Enrolment for the spring opens in December
See this page for more information about deadlines and enrolling for courses and exams.
Note:
It is mandatory to enrol for all activities of a course that you are going to follow.
Your enrolment is only complete when you submit your course planning in the ‘Ready for enrolment’ tab by clicking ‘Send’.
Not being enrolled for an exam/resit means that you are not allowed to participate in the exam/resit.
Contact
Menno Schilthuizen (IBL, Naturalis); menno.schilthuizen@naturalis.nl
Hans Slabbekoorn (IBL); h.w.slabbekoorn@biology.leidenuniv.nl
Auke-Florian Hiemstra (Naturalis); aukeflorian.hiemstra@naturalis.nl
Sofia Fernandes Gomes (IBL); s.i.fernandes.gomes@biology.leidenuniv.nl
Remarks
Max. number of students: 25
16 weeks (6 EC)
Your registration is not complete if you have not registered for all course components available in my study map (exam, lecture, etc.).
Software
Starting from the 2024/2025 academic year, the Faculty of Science will use the software distribution platform Academic Software. Through this platform, you can access the software needed for specific courses in your studies. For some software, your laptop must meet certain system requirements, which will be specified with the software. It is important to install the software before the start of the course. More information about the laptop requirements can be found on the student website.