Lancaster University

Educational Aims

Although the term 'Science' may have broadened in recent years to include subjects such as Psychology and Engineering, the Natural Sciences degree here at Lancaster University concentrates on the more traditional areas of science. The main aim of the BSc degree in Natural Sciences at Lancaster University is to allow students to study a multi-subject course based on the fundamental science subjects, Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Geography, Mathematics and Physics. This programme creates graduates who can move on to careers or further study for which a broad science background is required. By combining courses from different degree schemes, students can tailor their degree to fit their interests and ambitions. The main educational aims of the programme are:

• To provide a broad education in up to three subjects, mainly in the traditional sciences;
• To offer a wide variety of routes through the scheme;
• A thorough grounding in scientific method across a range of science areas;
• Allowing students to maintain a non-science interest or acquire skills not normally included in a standard science degree by providing a structure within which students may study other subjects (e.g. a foreign language);
• To open up a wide range of employment opportunities to students. Graduates of this programme will have mastered two or three different disciplines and shown that they are prepared to think and work across conventional boundaries.

An additional aim for the exchange students is for them to acquire the ability to study in, and learn about a different society, culture and higher-education system. They will study a comparable range of courses and develop the same skills, and probably with a quicker development of themselves as autonomous learners. They acquire a formal and informal appreciation of the United States or Canada from their year in that country which they could not have obtained with such personal impact from courses here in Lancaster.

Intended Learning Outcomes

The same learning outcomes (below) are aimed for in the year abroad varient. The learning and teaching methods in the exchange University will differ from those used in Lancaster but not in any systematic way, and the larger classes will instil a greater sense of independence and self-reliance among the exchange students. Methods of assessment in these Universities tend to favour projects, term papers and tests (including multiple-choice tests) more than in Lancaster.

Acquisition of knowledge, understanding and skills

This degree scheme allows students to graduate with a much wider science base than a single subject degree. Natural Sciences students:

• Study each of their three subjects to the same depth as a single honours student but not the same breadth in that subject;
• Are taught and assessed alongside single subject students, ensuring the quality of this honours degree course.

On graduation a Natural Sciences student would be expected to have acquired the following range of skills:

• Laboratory skills and methods of experimental measurement;
• Numerical skills, appreciation of experimental uncertainty and statistical analysis;
• Communication skills, scientific writing, oral presentations, accumulating and interpreting information from a range of scientific sources;
• General IT skills, databases, spreadsheets, using the internet etc.;
• Working with others - group projects compulsory in a number of subjects (computing and independent studies for example);
• Field trips (in geography and environmental studies for example).