Discovering Invertebrates

Overview

This course seeks to introduce you to the vast diversity of invertebrates (both land and sea), including examples from the UK that you might find in your garden or the sea. Invertebrates are often overlooked over their more publicised vertebrate cousins but there is a huge diversity in both body shape, environment and feeding habits that is fascinating. We will work through this diversity, learning the taxonomy of invertebrates, and how they have specialised to live in different environments. We will also cover how you might design an experiment to investigate a question you might have about invertebrates.

Programme

1: Understanding the taxonomy of invertebrates and how species are grouped into larger denominations as well as identifying which invertebrates fall into which denomination. This also includes learning about invertebrate life cycles through examples. E.g.

• Crabs
• Limpets
• Mussels
• Centipedes
• Worms
• Dragon flies
• Jellyfish

2: Learning how to design a field experiment to focus on one particular invertebrate, to answer a specific question.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this module, students should be able to:

1. Understand the classification of invertebrates, how and why they are grouped into certain categories.
2. Identify a range of invertebrate groups and species and understand their life cycles.
3. Understand how to design an experiment to investigate an invertebrate species in the field.

 Assessments

1. Test - 30%
2. Written Assignment - 70%

Reading Suggestions

Reading suggestions will be offered throughout the course. 

Entry Requirements

This course is for everyone. No previous experience is needed and there are no formal entry requirements. 

What Do I Need?

As this is an online course, you would need the following:

• Internet access
• Access to a laptop or computer with a web camera and microphone; the use of headphones might also be of benefit
• Use of the Chrome web-browser where possible.