BB823: Sound and hearing

Study Board of Science

Teaching language: Danish or English depending on the teacher, but English if international students are enrolled
EKA: N110027112, N110027102
Assessment: Second examiner: None
Grading: Pass/Fail
Offered in: Odense
Offered in: Spring
Level: Master's level course approved as PhD course

STADS ID (UVA): N110027101
ECTS value: 5

Date of Approval: 22-10-2018


Duration: 1 semester

Version: Archive

Comment

04006601(former UVA) is identical with this course description. 

Entry requirements

Passed bachelor degree in biology, psychology, engineering or similar.

Academic preconditions

None

Course introduction

The aim of this course is to give students heading for a Master’s
degree in Biology an introduction into and a broad overview in the field
of bioacoustics. Students interested in the field are given the chance
to gain insights into major breakthroughs in acoustic communication,
training in relating to currently debated topics, and an orientation
about interesting questions for future projects. Furthermore monitoring
techniques for assessing wildlife presence of vocal species are
introduced. 
The course gives an academic basis for studying acoustic communication, signal analysis and bioacoustics.
In relation to the competence profile of the degree it is the explicit focus of the course to:
  • Give
    the competence to plan and control work and development of projects, to
    initiate and succeed in professional collaboration and to be
    responsible for own professional development and specialization
  • Give
    skills to read original research papers, to make high-quality
    recordings of signals in air and water, to calibrate microphones,
    analyse and visualize  sound signals
  • Give knowledge and understanding of fundamental and recent topics within the field of bioacoustics

Expected learning outcome

The learning objective of the course is that the student demonstrates the ability to:
  • have a basic knowledge of acoustics
  • be able to describe the anatomy and physiology in different animal groups’ hearing organs
  • be able to describe sound communication in different animal groups
  • be able to explain the physiological and psychophysical methods for measuring hearing and sound production
  • conduct an independent bioacoustics project
  • be able to describe the experiments and results in a satisfactory academic language.

Content

The following main topics are contained in the course:
  • Basic physical properties of sound waves
  • Recording sound in the wild of frogs, birds, bats, whales
  • sound production and hearing in air and water
  • environmental sound degradation
  • noise
  • spectral analysis of signals
  • the dB scale

Literature

See Blackboard for syllabus lists and additional literature references.

Examination regulations

Prerequisites for participating in the exam element a)

Timing

Spring

Tests

Participation in the field course

EKA

N110027112

Assessment

Second examiner: None

Grading

Pass/Fail

Identification

Student Identification Card

Language

Normally, the same as teaching language

Examination aids

To be announced during the course

ECTS value

0

Additional information

The prerequisite examination is a prerequisite for participation in exam element a)

Exam element a)

Timing

Spring

Prerequisites

Type Prerequisite name Prerequisite course
Examination part Prerequisites for participating in the exam element a) N110027101, BB823: Sound and hearing

Tests

Portfolio

EKA

N110027102

Assessment

Second examiner: None

Grading

Pass/Fail

Identification

Full name and SDU username

Language

Normally, the same as teaching language

Examination aids

To be announced during the course

ECTS value

5

Additional information

Portfolio with:

  1. Oral presentation of seminar
  2. Vwritten critique of scientific paper

The examination form for re-examination may be different from the exam form at the regular exam.

Indicative number of lessons

50 hours per week

Teaching Method

In the literature seminars each student must choose a recent journal article on a bioacoustics topic. In a group they are asked to prepare a short presentation and discussion of the work, which is presented and discussed in plenum.

  • Reading scientific article
  • Critical reflection / commentary
  • Preparation for plenum presentation 

Teacher responsible

Name E-mail Department
Coen Elemans coen@biology.sdu.dk

Timetable

Administrative Unit

Biologisk Institut

Team at Educational Law & Registration

NAT

Offered in

Odense

Recommended course of study

Profile Education Semester Offer period