BiOc301-01a Biological Oceanography 3

Module Lead: Prof. Dr. Rainer Kiko

Format: Seminar, Practical and Exercise

Prerequisite: All compulsory modules of the first and second semester must be completed

Exam: Thesis Proposal (100%)

Credits: 10 ECTS

Registration of the exam is possible at all times throughout the year.

A| Research Division and Research Unit seminars (Seminar)

The colloquia of the Research Divisions (RDs) 2 and 3 and Research Units (RUs) at GEOMAR give an overview over the current state-of-the-art research. They cover topics of interest to all disciplines at GEOMAR and are held by GEOMAR staff as well as by invited internationally leading scientists. For BiOc301, students participate in at least 10 seminars and document participation through the attendance overview.

Note: You cannot record attendance for a seminar that is also part of a different module you are receiving credits for. For example, if you participate in BiOc304 - Current Topics in Marine Biogeochemistry II as one of your compulsory elective „Current Topics II“ seminars, you cannot also record it for the BiOc301 seminar series.

If you are doing an ERASMUS+ semester or are not at GEOMAR due to other reasons, you can also take seminars at your host institution. Online participation is allowed in exceptional cases, please get in touch with Prof. Kiko in this case. Please hand in the final sheet to office-pbi(at)geomar.de (Mrs. Silvana Gagliardi).

B | Research cruise, field course or internship (Practical)

Students can choose to participate in an oceanographic cruise, a field course or an internship (2 weeks minimum duration). Internships can be conducted within GEOMAR working groups, in external academic working groups, at NGOs or companies – depending on the student’s interests. Students hand in a 5-page narrative report describing their experiences (what you did, techniques learned, overall experience, …) with Prof. Kiko (rkiko(at)geomar.de). The report is not graded.

C | Thesis Proposal (Exercise)

Students choose an advisor and research group to conduct their Master’s thesis with. In close collaboration with the primary advisor, and building on the module BiOc103 Doing Science, students write a 10-15-page research proposal with an abstract, an introduction section (state-of-the art) that leads to testable hypotheses and the description of experiments / sampling procedures or data analysis approaches, which can be used to test them or to close knowledge gaps. 

Submitting the thesis proposal is possible at all times throughout the year. Proposals are to be handed it in PDF-format via e-mail to rkiko(at)geomar.de. The written proposal is to be submitted well before the practical or data analysis work starts. Students suggest one additional lecturer or group leader who can provide feedback on the proposal. Two weeks after the students have received feedback on their proposal, they can revise their work and submit a final version that is graded by the supervisor and by Rainer Kiko. The grade of the thesis proposal is the one counted for BiOc301.

Proposal Day

Additionally, there is one proposal day each semester (early October and early April) where students present their thesis outline or already accomplished work / preliminary results to their peers and GEOMAR staff. In turn, feedback from the proposal day can be incorporated in your written Master thesis. Naturally, the proposal day presentation should thus not be scheduled after you have completed all of your thesis work.