[Taxacom] offer: masters-level course and lecture on Crustacea, Ulm, Germany

[Dieter Waloszek]

Dear all, due to special circumstances we are just now able to offer places in our masters-level course to any students outside Ulm. The course is entirely free, might might be interesting for those coming to us from the distance and have to pay for travelling and living.

Yours, DIETER

Masters Programme Course: Systematics, Phylogeny and Morphology of Crustacea

from June 27 to July 15, 2011, at the AG Biosystematic Documentation, University of Ulm, Helmholtzstr. 20, 89081 Ulm, Germany

Contact: Prof. Dr. Dieter Waloszek or apl Prof. Dr. Andreas Maas

email: andreas.maas at uni-ulm.de, phone x49-731-5031002, fax x49-731-5031009

NOTE: The course is thought for students at the masters level. Reason to offer this so late is that we had to wait until the few masters students here in Ulm decided to take their courses, so that we only now have the places free for others. The course was thought to be given in English anyway (materials offered are also in English), therefore no problem for us to take any students. The only thing is that the students much care for their travel to Ulm and living themselves (we can help finding a hotel or a room in the local youth hostel, or course). The course itself is free, and we can offer a certificate of participation at the end, or, if required, a test, etc. The maximum number of students we can take is eight because of our equipment.

Addressees: Students should have finished their bachelor and should have a profound interest in morphology and systematics; some background in arthropod morphology would be desirable.

Maximum students possible: 8.

Costs: The course itself is entirely free to keep the costs of the participants as low as possible, because they must care themselves for their travel to Ulm, accommodation and daily cost. The social events may also add some costs.

Lecture: each day from Monday to Friday from 09:00 – 11:00: Themes: introduction to crustacean phylogeny and systematics, key features and events in the evolution of the group, with a focus on morphology, terminology, ontogeny as a key to understand the adult morphologies, functional aspects, general biological aspects, life habits; introduction to all larger groups, their ground patterns, examples of the many in-group taxa; problems concerning the current state of systematics; outlook on the significance of Crustacea in the ecosystem and for humans.

Course: each day from 13:00 – 18:00: Course work includes morphological preparation and inspection of examples of all major crustacean taxa, preparation of material for SEM work and possibly own SEM studies (if wanted), a one-day excursion to collect freshwater crustaceans, culture of larvae (Artemia) and their inspection.

Methods: Main documentation methods include light microscopy, drawing, digital photography, scanning electron microscopy, larval culture.

Aims: Deeper insight of one of the major groups of Euarthropoda, i.e. the largest aquatic arthropod taxon.

Offers: Literature around Crustacea and special scientific articles will be available in the course room; handouts (ca. 200) and pfds of the powerpoints of the lecture are free, likewise a script as a helping guide along with the course (ca. 40 pages).

Workload: No reading prior to course is needed. Students will prepare short summaries of small projects along the course and present these as powerpoints at the end of each week.

First ideas/ suggestions for social activities (evenings, free two weekends): a view of the old parts of Ulm, and testing of typical Schwäbisch food (and/or beer, regional wines), day trip to the Castle Neuschwanstein in the Allgäu on the first or second weekend.


Prof. Dr. Dieter Waloßek
University of Ulm, Biosystematic Documentation
Helmholtzstraße 20, 89081 Ulm, Germany
phone x49-731-5031000, fax 5031009
dieter.waloszek at uni-ulm.de

WEBSITE: http://biosys-serv.biologie.uni-ulm.de/
Center of Orsten Research & Exploration C.O.R.E.:  http://www.CORE-Orsten-Research.de