In 2021/2022, the course "Tropical ecology - field course" (WBNZ-850) received financial support by the Strategic Program Excellence Initiative at the Jagiellonian University (ID.UJ) and therefore a competition for course participants is announced.
The ID.UJ funds will be used to fully finance the cost of stay of 12 course participants at the field station where the course is conducted. The support does not cover expenses incurred outside the period of teaching at the field station, including the costs of air travel and local travel. Course participants will be selected through a competition that will be resolved before registering for the summer semester courses (so that students who do not qualify for the field course will be able to enrol in other courses, which will allow them to obtain the necessary number of ECTS to complete the year).
The competition can be entered by students who meet the entry requirements of the course "Tropical ecology - field course" (WBNZ-850) listed in the syllabus ("Completion of any ecology course. Completion of the" Tropical Ecology " course or equivalent. Knowledge of the English language at an intermediate level at least.”), or students who, at the time of the opening of the competition, are in the process of completing the required courses and will receive positive final grades from these courses no later than in the winter examination session (academic year 2021/2022).
Details of the contest
1) Objective
The competition will select 12 participants of the course (maximum limit) from among the interested candidates (maximum 24 students), and the criterion considered in the competition will be the idea for a research project carried out during the course.
2) Determining the list of candidates participating in the competition (maximum 24 students)
The list of students taking part in the competition will be determined on the basis of registration in the USOSweb system, which will be opened on January 10, 2022 at 7:00 AM and will end on January 15th at 12:00 PM. In the case of a greater number of applicants than the maximum limit in the competition (24 students), the order of applications decides whether the candidates are eligible for the competition.
Persons who register in USOSweb will be asked by the course coordinator via e-mail to send information about the fulfilment of the entry requirements (listed in the course syllabus).
3) Settling the contest (12 students)
As part of the competition, qualified candidates (maximum 24 students) present an idea for a research project that they would like to carry out during the course, considering the specificity of the environment around the field station (rainforest in Costa Rica or Borneo) and the expected duration of the project (14 days). The results of the competition will be a ranking list of students qualified for the course "Tropical ecology - field course", determined on the basis of evaluations of research projects made by a commission appointed for this purpose.
The description of the project in English in the form of a Word file should be sent by January 20, 2022, by 12:00 by email to the course coordinator. Confirmation of the receiving of the project for the competition will be a return email. The description of the project must have a strictly defined format (MS Word file, maximum 2 pages, standard margins 2.5 cm, 12-point Times New Roman font, line spacing of 1) and contain the following information: name and surname of the student, title of the project, abstract of the research idea, an outline of a research plan for 14 days, a list of the necessary equipment, materials and laboratory facilities, an assessment of the realism of the project implementation given the course conditions.