In spring 2020, when the world suddenly faced Corona, and all UNIS courses were cancelled, we suddenly saw an opening to work on other frontiers. It was time to breathe in and think about how to use the time for those students that are still here. In Arctic Biology, several...
At the University of Bergen, the semester has in many ways been characterized by the shutdown due to Covid-19. biORACLE had a regular start before the shutdown, with quite a few people showing up to the weekly Wednesday meetings to grab a waffle, a coffee, and getting some help or...
The 13th of March universities across Norway closed their campuses to prevent the spread of Covid-19. All teaching was moved online, and the aim was to secure learning outcomes and support students through the semester. This was a massive shift for students and teachers alike, and we had to start...
Through my last two field sampling trips during the Polar night period I have been so lucky to be assisted by a UNISprout bachelor student – Johannes, who had applied to join in on a 40 hour internship within my project. I myself am a PhD student from India doing...
The first of March it was yet again time to submit the Annual report. Writing up a summary of this year’s activities is a challenging and rewarding process. A chance to remind ourselves of our progress – and some failures, and assure that our activies and future plans align with...
The goal of bioWRITE is to provide a common resource in the academic writing education at BIO. Currently, the site includes instructions on how to write in the IMRaD-format (Introduction, Materials and methods, Results and Discussion); it also covers different genres within science communication such as lab reports, blog posts...
We are two students doing an internship at bioCEED, based at UNIS, during this spring semester. Anne Bruls first came to UNIS as a BSc student in 2016. She is enrolled in a general MSc Biology program in Wageningen, the Netherlands, but her addiction to Arctic Biology led her to...
How we teach, how and where we discuss teaching and learning, has changed a lot during the last weeks. Although there are many challenges, we see that teachers around Norway (and beyond) have found new ways of communicating and sharing – and new conversational partners. Teachers gather in digital rooms...
bioCEED leader Vigdis Vandvik and colleagues Lucas M. Jeno, Arild Raaheim, Torstein N. Hole and Gaute Velle have written this opinion piece in Khrono: Med årvisse åpne data om tilstanden i norsk høyere utdanning markerte Studiebarometeret et veiskille for sektoren. Nå er tiden moden for neste skritt på veien: Studiebarometeret...
bioCEED deputy leader Pernille Bronken Eidesen and BIO’s Øyvind Fiksen were recently interviewed in an article in Forskerforum: – Gode undervisarar er bevisste på kva dei held på med, og dei tenkjer mykje på korleis dei kan bli betre. Det som har gjort meg til ein betre undervisar dei siste...
Interested in learning more about supporting students developing their academic writing? bioCEED invites you to a seminar with Lene Nordrum (Lund University). Wednesday 29th January, 13:15-14:00 at Auditorium 4, Realfagbygget, UiB Disciplinary literacy – how to read, write, and talk in a specific discipline – is the key to knowledge and success in...
The 6th annual teachers’ retreat was held on Dec 2nd and 3rd 2019 at the Fleischers’ Hotel, Voss, a short train-ride from Bergen. As always, our aim is to promote a collegial teaching culture at BIO. This year, the teachers’ retreat was devoted to the goals and visions for our...
BIO students were invited to a two-day workshop on how to make the best biology education for the future. On October 28th and 29th, in the midst of a busy semester, 18 students spent two whole days working on the bachelor degree in biology. They used the 5-step model of...
We conducted our second and final bioBREAKFAST of the Autumn semester! As students have become to feel stressed with final exams and presentation and may have been feeling a little blue due to the dark season we thought a cozy bioBREAKFAST would be a nice way to start off the...
The first UNISprout project was successfully completed at UNIS this fall! Arctic Biology bachelor students Sari Dötterer and Annie Colgan participated in a project to process and identify bryophyte and lichen samples under the mentorship of Associate Professor Simone Lang. UNISprout is a student led bioCEED initiative developed by former...
A quick tutorial has been made on how to do a screencast of a presentation or lecture using the free open-source software, Open Broadcaster Software (OBS). A screencast consists in a video recording of the data or any other visual content displayed on a computer screen, typically with comments in...
We recently told you about the use of 3D-printed pollen grains as teaching material in a paleoecology lab course (read about it here). It seems like the engagement around 3D-printing in teaching is spreading as fast as the flu. The latest (but certainly not last) victim of the epidemy is...
In October it was time for the different SFUs to meet at a network meeting, this time in beautiful Trondheim. The morning had an early start at 5 AM in Bergen. A bit short of time we rushed to Flesland airport to catch the 06:55 AM flight to Trondheim, getting...
Don’t miss the new episodes of NOKUT-podden, the podcast on higher education (in Norwegian) produced by NOKUT, the Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education. The last five episodes are about: Den om merittering av undervisere Den om faglig fellesskap for ansatte og studenter Den om tilbakemelding og veiledning...
The sixth annual Learning Forum at UNIS was held in October 2019 with around 65 participants joining the forum. Scientific staff, support staff and student representatives enjoyed 2.5 days of discussions, presentations and reflections on teaching and learning. As in previous years, the annual Learning Forum aimed to continue promoting...