GEOL2301: Frontiers in Palaeobiology

This term will improve your research and presentation skills by addressing current controversies in palaeontology. By engaging with active debates, you will learn to weigh evidence, to balance and present competing perspectives, and to navigate uncertainty.

The term kicks off with two introductory topics. After an introduction to the key concepts, your group will discuss an influential paper ("Journal club"); before convincing an adjudicator of your allocated side of the argument in an open debate.

To conclude the term, your group will choose an active research controversy. You will produce a microsite and oral primer presenting your take on the topic. Your peers will then prepare an essay arguing for the opposite perspective.

There are two components of assessment, each requiring you to construct a reasoned argument that integrates multiple aspects of an active research topic, based on your own reading. During the term you will work as a group to prepare a microsite that advocates a position on a contested palaeontological topic [Rubric]. You will then write an individual 2000 (± 500) word essay that provides a reasoned counter-argument to one of your peers' microsites [Rubric].

You will work in groups of three or four throughout this term. To sign up to groups and (in due course) view links to groups' microsites, use this spreadsheet. You will be able to change groups when it comes time to select a research topic.