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Module

NES2104 : Site Management and Communication Skills

  • Offered for Year: 2024/25
  • Module Leader(s): Professor Guy Garrod
  • Lecturer: Dr Simon Peacock
  • Other Staff: Dr Amy Proctor
  • Owning School: Natural and Environmental Sciences
  • Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters

Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.

Semester 1 Credit Value: 10
Semester 2 Credit Value: 10
ECTS Credits: 10.0
European Credit Transfer System

Aims

The Module aims to provide students with core skills in management planning and ecosystems management and provide opportunities to apply and develop these and other core skills. In particular: to explain the communications systems and strategies needed by environmental managers; to demonstrate the role and importance of management plans in managing discrete countryside sites in private, public and third sector ownership; to demonstrate the role and importance of ecosystem concepts and function and how this relates to the management of ecosystems, nature reserves, country parks and other rural sites; to provide students with skills in site management planning; and to enable opportunities to develop core skills in written communications, team work, professional presentation skills, planning and organisation and initiative.

Outline Of Syllabus

Semester 1
1. The nature of ecosystems: Function, Energy Flow, Material Cycles
2. Ecosystem function and management: Human Impacts, Disturbance and Succession; Restoration
3. Ecosystem case studies: Agro-ecosystems, Grasslands, Wetlands, Heathlands, Woodland.
4. Ecological impacts of management and land use change


Semester 2
1. The rational for management planning
2. Preparation of site management plans
3. Management issues and solutions
4. Critical assessment of fragility and resilience of managed ecosystems
5. Field visits to case study site
6. Writing a site management plan
7. Emerging issues in ecosystems management

Teaching Methods

Teaching Activities
Category Activity Number Length Student Hours Comment
Guided Independent StudyAssessment preparation and completion130:0030:00Ecosystems Management Assessment preparation and completion
Guided Independent StudyAssessment preparation and completion130:0030:00Management Planning Assessment preparation and completion
Guided Independent StudyAssessment preparation and completion13:003:00Lightening Presentation preparation and completion
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesLecture181:0018:00N/A
Guided Independent StudyDirected research and reading150:0050:00Directed research and reading
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesFieldwork26:0012:00Management planning fieldwork
Guided Independent StudyReflective learning activity211:0021:00N/A
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesDrop-in/surgery11:001:00Management Planning
Guided Independent StudyIndependent study134:0034:00N/A
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesModule talk11:001:00N/A
Total200:00
Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Lectures provide the basic knowledge framework and appropriate further reading will provide insight into a range of issues in site interpretation, ecosystem concepts and function, and site management planning. Open discussions within lectures and workshops will provide an opportunity to articulate and critically evaluate alternative practical approaches to the topics covered in this module. Small group tutorials give students the chance to explore their knowledge on ecosystems management and prepare for site visits. Semester two field classes provide the opportunity to practice and develop the practical skills in ecosystem and site management planning (including data collection) introduced in lectures.

Assessment Methods

The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners

Other Assessment
Description Semester When Set Percentage Comment
Prof skill assessmnt2M50Ecosystem management exercise (up to 2000 words)
Prof skill assessmnt2M50Site management planning exercise (up to 2000 words)
Formative Assessments

Formative Assessment is an assessment which develops your skills in being assessed, allows for you to receive feedback, and prepares you for being assessed. However, it does not count to your final mark.

Description Semester When Set Comment
Oral Presentation2MManagement Plan Pitch - An opportunity for students to deliver a lightening talk on a particular feature of their plans (3 mins maximum) and receive feedback.
Assessment Rationale And Relationship

100% Continuous Assessment: 50% management plan exercise(set early in Spring Term, with submission after Easter); 50% ecosystems management exercise (set early in Spring Term, with submission in May.

The ecosystems management exercise(1) will test students' abilities to evaluate the environmental and ecological factors that control the function and variability of a particular ecosystem that they will visit.
The management planning exercise(2) will build on and extend the exercise in(1) by requiring students to practise their problem solving skills by examining management issues across the whole site, while testing their initiative and their ability to plan and organise the information that they have gathered and then structure their written output according to a set structure.

Reading Lists

Timetable