Natural sciences - selecting 3 themes

I've got some questions about selecting 3 Natural sciences themes - Lancaster seem to want them to be selected asap, and it seems a bit confusing. I'm sure it will click soon, but at the moment, it seems a bit baffling. The Themes are listed here - http://www.naturalsci.lancs.ac.uk/current.html.

A levels are Biology, Chemistry and Maths, and the Biological side of Natural sciences are what grab the attention at the moment. No experience in Psychology, but interested in taking that module up.

So the questions I have include:-

Both the Cell Biology and Biochemistry themes look very interesting. However, in the first year they seem identical apart from one module. And they seem so similar in the second year that if you do both of them, you can't get enough credits. There is a similar overlap (but not as bad) with Microbiology/Biomedicine. It feels like I don't understand the rules here - what am I missing? Can they not be chosen together - or do they fit in some way I don't understand?

Microbiology/Biomedicine looks like quite an interesting theme. However, dissection is not a favourite activity and it would be good to avoid it. I imagine the Anatomy and Tissue Structure module is loaded with it? I know it is Biomedicine and so I should expect it to have lots of dissection in it. Is there any dissection in Microbiology/Biomedicine across the 3 years?

I don't know anything about Psychology, apart from the fact that the subject is very interesting. Has anyone done the course, or do they have any comments on it?
I also get a bit confused because the sheet says the first year is 'non-majorable', but then it describes the 3 year course as 90 credits, which is a major.

As part of any Biology theme, there are 5 Chemistry modules recommended, although 101 & 102 aren't needed because of the A level Chemistry. Selecting Chemistry means choosing any 5 modules from 10, the first 5 of which are the 5 for Biology. So I'm a bit confused - if Biology is selected and the 3 Chemistry modules are taken for that, when selecting the Chemistry theme, does that mean another 2 Chemistry modules need to be selected for first year, or another 5?

Sorry for all the questions - as you can see, I'm still trying to understand the mechanism for selecting themes and modules. I'm sure it will click and then I won't be able to understand how I didn't 'get it' straight away (like riding a bike). Any help you able to give is very gratefully accepted. :smile:

Reply 1

bb193

Ah - I guess there are no Lancaster Natural Scientists on TSR :frown:

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Reply 2

k9markiii

You'd be better off speaking to the department there are a fair number of natural scientists. In first year there aren't many courses where too much pre-requisite study is required, if you did physics you would have had to have done A-level maths but not A-level physics necessarily. I don't know the requirements for psychology. All of this can be sorted out when you get there usually and pre-registering can just speed up the process a bit.

Reply 3

bb193

Original post by k9markiii

It is good advice so I emailed them the main questions (2&4) using the Natsci email address and they have replied. The summary goes something like this:-

The final decision can be left until you get there. This is helped by a discussion with them and also going to the Part One Talks given by each department.

The main thing to consider is what you want to do in Years 2/3 and then go for the Part 1 modules that support that.

In the first year, students have to do 120 credits. Each module is 8 credits, so you need to do 15 modules (easy so far!). Each 'thread' typically consists of 5 modules, so it seems fairly obvious that you need to do 3 threads.

However, for the Biology thread, you also need to do some Chemistry. 5 modules if you didn't take A level, but only 3 if you did (as is the case here). So there are two modules 'free'. These can be chosen from the Chemistry thread (to complete that) or from somewhere else - for instance if the leaning is more toward Biology, they could be Biol121 & 122 from the Microbiology & Biomedicine thread.

Oh, and the last point - the Microbiology & Biomedicine doesn't really include any 'blood and guts' stuff. The closest is a finger prick to do a blood cell identification and counting experiment.

Much clearer, and can be cleared up even more when there. No stress :smile: