Syllabus

PFS0153 Thematic course in a specific silviculture topic, 3.0 Credits

Subjects

Education cycle

Grading scale

Language

Prior knowledge

Objectives

The purpose of the course is to give the student an opportunity to go in-depth in a certain subject of silviculture, and together with other students and senior researchers discuss concepts and conflicts of the topic. The course should be an option for a group of students to request a customized course in a specific, and sometimes narrow, part of silviculture where they have a special interest and where other silviculture/forest management Ph.D-courses will be too generalized for their interest. Another purpose of giving a customized course is also to be able to adapt the study pace to the group of students in every course cycle.

Content

The course have no fixed starting time or semester. The course will start when a minimum of 3 students are interested of taking the course and a main teacher is appointed and have a course schedule accepted from the course examiner. The schedule includes a formulated specific silviculture topic of the course and a time table with dates for the meetings from the general time table in this syllabus/courseplan. The credits for the course is 3 HP which corresponds to 2 weeks of full time study. The main core of the course is the individual reading, analysing, compiling and writing of literature within the topic. The main teacher should have a doctoral degree in forest science, or similar, but does not necessarily have to be employed or affiliated to SLU.

The topic of the course may differ and also the time between the different meetings but all course cycles will use the structure and time table defined in syllabus:

The students will within the specific topic choose their own perspective/angle but have a defined overall question or review. The outcome from the course will be three written documents:

1. Individual essay/report/review over the topic.

2. Reference list of the material used in the course.

3. Work description including the students reflection, notes from meetings and documentation of how the work has proceed.

Meeting 1

Main teacher presents the introduction literature within the topic. The students decides a title and discuss briefly what their individual perspectives on the topic will be.

Between meeting 1 and 2

Read the literature. Initiate the reference list.

Submit1. Write a framework for your own perspective of the topic. Constraints in time, spatially, in species etc. Highlight the most interesting questions from your own perspective and for the whole topic.

Submit 2. Give written response to the other students "Submit 1".

Meeting 2

The students present and discuss their written framework of their perspective, what constrains they will have and what they want to highlight or focus on. The important outcome from meeting 2 is that the main teacher and the students should agree on the essays main questions or review statements (minimum 1 and maximum 5). They should also agree on the individual parts and how it fit into the topic.

Meeting 3…X (defined in the course plan)

The students and main teacher present and discuss the progress of the written essays. The date of the final meeting should be stated in the course plan.

Additional information

Responsible department

Department of Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre