Field Courses

Get your first immersive taste of field ecology during the level 1 Coastal and Uplands field course. You will visit both the Field Studies Council Centres in Millport on the Scottish island of Great Cumbrae Scotland and Castle Head in Cumbria.

Whether at Millport or Castle Head, you will put into practice the biological knowledge and skills you’ve gained during your first year to investigate ecology and evolution in action.

In particular, you’ll discover how environmental factors like temperature and tide action, and biological factors like competition and predation, structure biological communities and drives variation within and between species.

After some larger group activities to introduce ecological sampling methods and species identification, in small groups you’ll design and carry out your own investigations

When: June, Year 1
Duration: 1 week
Location: Milport, Scotland
Compulsory: Biology, Zoology, Ecology and Conservation Biology
Optional: Genetics

Examples of projects:

• Rock pool species diversity
• Hermit crab startle behaviour
• Periwinkle seaweed choice
• Bladderwrack morphology
• Butterfly thermal behaviour
• Small mammal parasites
• Freshwater shrimp abundance