| Department of Agricultural Sciences | |||||||||||||||||||
| Earliest Possible Year | |||||||||||||||||||
| Duration | 1 semester | ||||||||||||||||||
| Credits | 24 (ECTS) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Course Level | BSc BSc level | ||||||||||||||||||
| Examination | oral examination Aid allowed Description of Examination: 13-point scale, external examiner 80% of mark based on project report Description of Examination: 20% of mark based on oral examination | ||||||||||||||||||
| Organisation of Teaching | Lectures: 4 course modules per week first 7 weeks. Practicals and discussions: 6-8 hours weekly first 7 weeks. Subject report primarily during last 7 weeks. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Block Placement | F SUP Monday 8.40-16.30, Wednesday 8.40-12, and Friday 9.35-14.30 Check Course Homepage | ||||||||||||||||||
| Teaching Language | English | ||||||||||||||||||
| Optional Prerequisites | 025111 Applied Physics A Basic knowledge of chemistry, physics and biology and some knowledge of ecology. Geology and Soil Science, Introduction to Organic Farming, Agricultural Botany (basic), Zoology (basic) and Zoological Ecology,The understanding of Organic as a Profession. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Course Objectives | |||||||||||||||||||
| The course gives students an understanding of ecological agriculture from an integrated viewpoint, beginning with ecological principles relevant to organic agriculture. This is followed by principles of cropping system design, the energy and material flows in ecological agriculture and the technological and engineering aspects of ecological farming. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Course Contents | |||||||||||||||||||
| Ecological agriculture is a form of applied ecology and thus its biological background forms a starting point for the course. Ecological agriculture also has a series of clear aims and guiding principles that need to be balanced within an agricultural system. These aims and principles need to be understood as biological processes. However, the integrative nature of ecological agriculture also means that cross-discipline thinking is central to it. The course therefore aims to provide students with a disciplinary base at the beginning but moves, via group work and team teaching, to a more interdisciplinary approach. The thematic course can stand alone but will also form the first part of a one year curriculum in Ecological Agriculture under the SOCRATES program. The second part, addressing other aspects of Ecological Agriculture including animal production, ecological agriculture as a business, environmental impacts and decision making will be offered at another European University. The course contains both theoretical and practical ideas in relation to ecological agriculture, and we use lectures and independent learning through theoretical and practical exercises and project work. The students will obtain an understanding of ecological agriculture as the application of population and production ecology, the soil biotic and abiotic mechanisms that underpin soil fertility, the factors and conditions which determine the planning and management of a cropping system the main principles of machinery and technical systems for ecological agriculture. A detailed course plan is given on the course homepage (http://kursus.kvl.dk/ea). | |||||||||||||||||||
| Teaching And Learning Methods | |||||||||||||||||||
| The course is structured as lectures, discussions, exercises and a major group project. The course co-ordinator will attempt to attend all lectures to lead ongoing discussions of the links between the topics. The last six weeks of the semester will be devoted to a supervised group project (3-4 students per group) with a distinct inter-disciplinary aspect, using information from all the topics discussed in the first period of the course to focus on a specific aspect of ecological agriculture. Previously completed projects can be found on the course web-site. Supervisors will approve a written synopsis of the project's proposed content and methods. Finally, students will present their projects to the rest of the course in a final seminar, which is part of the evaluation process. Instructors will offer guidance during the project. The course is examined via an oral examination with an external censor and concentrates on the written and oral presentation of the project. Further details are given nearer the time of the examination that is held in the first week of June.The course also has a number of places in it where students are expected to make presentations to the rest of the class and the staff - see the course description. In these 'hot topic' debates a group of students will be given the task of preparing a presentation for the rest of the class to act as an introduction to the theme in question.It is expected that the students will use the time away from lectures to read the material presented and free study is seen as an important part of the course. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Course Litterature | |||||||||||||||||||
| Teachers will provide copies of their teaching material prior to lectures. Lists of the texts used and their link to the topics during the lectures can be found on the course web-site. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Course Coordinator | |||||||||||||||||||
| John R. Porter, jrp@life.ku.dk, Department of Agricultural Sciences/Environment, Resources and Technology, Phone: 35333377 Henning Høgh Jensen, hhj@life.ku.dk, Department of Agricultural Sciences/Environment, Resources and Technology, Phone: 35333391 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Study Board | |||||||||||||||||||
| Study Committee AHJ | |||||||||||||||||||
| Course Scope | |||||||||||||||||||
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