EXTERNAL FREE CHOICE MODULE / INTERSHIP
As mentioned in the module table, credit points can be obtained for external practical lab experience or internships agreed upon an individual basis.
External modules will not be organized by the program coordinator but by the student themselves. However, before starting an external module you must contact the head of the examination committee (or at least the program coordinator) for preliminary approval.
The requirements and a rough frame work for external “modules” at universities or research institutions are as follows:
- active collaboration in a research group in plant sciences or plant sciences related field
- 10 (5) credit points can be obtained for a 6 (3) weeks, whole-day, practical laboratory work experience
- the supervising laboratory leader, having a PhD, should document the working period, the taken approaches and employed techniques
- the work/project needs a title (max 10 words / 80 characters) that will be listed on the mark sheet
- the candidate needs to prepare a laboratory protocol
- the external supervisor should review the protocol and grade it.
- an independent, second grading of the protocol is given by a lecturer/tutor in the Bonn University Plant Sciences program. This internal reviewer should be experienced in a field related to the external module
- To recognize certain variation, e.g. presentation instead of laboratory
protocol, contact the program examination committee headed by Dr. Menzel.
Recommendation: To assist you in deciding whether your intended external module is appropriate to be credited (e.g. working in a garden center or routine analysis in medical laboratory is not adequate) it is also recommended to contact the suggested internal reviewer before starting an external module. Thereby the internal reviewer is informed about the intended module and its presumed content and can agree to grade the laboratory protocol.
The program coordinator can assist you in finding a suitable person in the Plant Sciences program.
INTERNAL FREE CHOICE MODULE / INTERSHIP
For practical free choice modules (FREE1) with research groups of faculty directly involved in the plant sciences program less restrictions apply.
A second internal reviewer is not required. However, as for external internships the supervisor should shortly
document what was done (e.g. investigating X with methods Y), the time
period and of course needs to grade your work (e.g. based on lab
protocol or results presentation etc.).
Contact: PD Dr. Rochus Franke, University of Bonn, IZMB.