Module: BIO6104-20 Plants and People

Level: 6

Credit Value: 20

Module Tutor:  Lori Bystrom

Module Tutor Contact Details: l.bystrom@bathspa.ac.uk

1. Brief description and aims of module:

Interactions between plants and people – and their consequences – are numerous, extremely varied, and often surprising. For example, did exploitation of cotton lead to the Cold War? Was the 15th century obsession with spices the catalyst for globalisation? What’s so good/bad about agriculture? Are plants playing mind-games with Mankind? Can plants solve a murder? The answers to such questions are not straightforward and draw upon subjects as diverse as biology, environmental science, anthropology, psychology, geography, politics, philosophy, and history.

The multi-disciplinary nature of this module challenges and encourages you to expand your knowledge beyond your specialist subject area. It will therefore enable you to develop an informed appreciation of the ways in which humans exploit – and are influenced by – the plant resource. The module will also provide opportunities to develop effective communication skills as you share that knowledge and insight with different audiences using a range of media.

This module also aims to develop the following graduate attributes:

Employability; Creativity; Digital literacy; International networking; Creative thinking, doing and making; and Critical thinking.

2. Outline syllabus

Plant and people interactions are numerous and extremely varied; there is a limit to what can be covered in the taught sessions. However, the module aims to consider such major issues and topics as genetic engineering, ethnobotany, forensic botany, agriculture, fungi, trees and wood, drugs, plants and religions. Given the global nature of plant-people relationships, appropriate international case studies will be used to illustrate issues in that subject area.

3. Teaching and learning activities

Lectures introduce the major topics of the module; workshop/seminar sessions and visit(s) will be used to develop themes introduced in the lectures. A particular feature of this module is the opportunity for you to enhance your intellectual development – and employability – by researching, interpreting and communicating plants-and-people information to different audiences via group and individual work. One output will be a poster developed in small groups (the more multi-disciplinary the group the better!). The major assignment is an article written in a more relaxed style than you may be used to from other modules, but designed to appeal to the educated, non-specialist reader (hopefully, the sort of article you’d like to read...).

Assessment Item 1:

• Assessment Type: Course Work

• Description: Poster (small groups)

• % Weighting: 40%

Assessment Item 2:

• Assessment Type: Course Work

• Description: Publication (3,500 words, individually)

• % Weighting: 60%