Teaching plan for the course unit

General Information

Recommendations

Most of the classes will be theoretical-practical participatory where students will be able to understand the evolution of our lineage with physical and virtual material.

Competences / Learning outcomes to be gained during study

• The rapid advancement of knowledge of human evolution and the ongoing discovery of new fossils demands that we stay up to date. This subject aims to provide a clear and comprehensive view of the meaning and importance of the most recent fossil findings, and of the most current and controversial scientific debates among leading researchers and teams: their hypotheses, discrepancies, and interpretations. All face-to-face classes will comprise scientific debate based on the information compiled by students with the analysis of 3D models of hominins and primates.

  Basic competences

  — Knowledge forming the basis of original thinking in the development or application of ideas, typically in a research context.

  — Capacity to apply the acquired knowledge to problem-solving in new or relatively unknown environments within broader (or multidisciplinary) contexts related to the field of study.

  — Capacity to integrate knowledge and tackle the complexity of formulating judgements based on incomplete or limited information, taking due consideration of the social and ethical responsibilities involved in applying knowledge and making judgements.

  — Capacity to communicate conclusions, judgements and the grounds on which they have been reached to specialist and non-specialist audiences in a clear and unambiguous manner.

  — Skills to enable lifelong self-directed and independent learning.

  Generic competences

  — Capacity to communicate, make presentations and write papers in English in the field of the study.

  — Knowledge and sufficient understanding of biological anthropology to be able to identify problems, find original solutions, and apply them in a research context and in the professional fields of biomedical sciences, forensic anthropology and/or human evolution.

  — Capacity to apply acquired technical and methodological knowledge to the development of research in the field of biological anthropology and, especially, to a proposal for a doctoral thesis in this area of knowledge.

  Specific competences

  — Ability to undertake quantitative measurements of the biological diversity of our species.

  — Ability to make evolutionary inferences from current human diversity (specialization in Physical and Forensic Anthropology).

  — Ability to manage museum samples (specialization in Physical and Forensic Anthropology).

Teaching blocks

Teaching methods and general organization

All classes will be face-to-face.

The subject will be taught through theoretical-practical classes in which the student will participate actively. We will transfer the theoretical classes to the lab where we will explain the evolution of our lineage from physical and virtual material.

In this way, most of the subject will be taught through debates in which the student will participate actively. In addition, we will learn to manipulate 3D meshes, obtain measurements and statistical analysis in situ.

Official assessment of learning outcomes

The evaluation of the subject consists of:

Exam that can combine the presence of short and multiple choice questions (30%)

Laboratory work: study of traits of hominins and creation of a scientific poster (40%)

Presentation of the work in a scientific poster format (30%).

Single assessment consists of a final examination (60%), and a written practical assignment (40%).