Assessment
Assessment takes the form of basic questioning (30% of total mark) and report writing (70% of total mark). Students will be provided with guidance as to what is required in assessment. Assistance will be available from UK Open Learning via telephone or e-mail
Learning Outcomes
Lesson 1
- To enable the student to appreciate the theories surrounding the emergence of animal life
- To explain the order of the early fish groups
- To understand basic fish distribution with regard to marine and freshwater systems and appreciate why this patterns occurs
- To understand speciation and its contribution to diversity
- To appreciate the rudimentary physical properties of water and air
Lesson 2
- Appreciate modern forms of jawless fish.
- Understand the two divisions of the chondrichthyes.
- Appreciate factors affecting the extinction of the Ostracoderms.
- To understand that the Acanthodians once existed and when they existed.
- To understand certain aspects of modern shark diversity.
- To appreciate the existence of the lobe finned fish.
- To understand that swim bladder development was a major key in Ostiechthian evolution.
Lesson 3
- To understand that buoyancy is controlled in a variety of ways
- To appreciate how fin design can aid buoyancy control
- To understand that dense substances are utilised in certain fish to control buoyancy
To appreciate that buoyancy control is a major contributor to fish diversity
- To appreciate how some Osteichthyes have physoclistous and some have physostomous swim bladders
- To understand the differences between the two swim bladder types
- To appreciate that fish that swim deeply need physoclistous swim bladders and to understand why
- To fully appreciate the diversity of bony fish and the relevance of the swim bladder in the creation of such diversity
Module 2
Lesson 4
To appreciate that pheromone ‘communication’ is used by many fish and appreciates what pheromones are used for.
- To understand the term ‘fear scents’
- To appreciate the role of anti predator communication in fish biology
- To understand how colouration is utilised in communication
- To understand how schooling and colouration interact
- To understand the role of eyespots in fish defence
- To appreciate the way that stripes effect fish communication and survival
Lesson 5
- Appreciate the role of recombination in creating diversity
- To understand the reasons why some fish change sex
- To appreciate the diversity of fish reproduction via Balons classification
- To understand the diversity of parental care
- To appreciate the factors and theories regarding which sex takes care of the young
- To understand the term fecundity
- To appreciate and understand examples of the diversity of fish reproduction
Lesson 6
- To enable the student to appreciate that some fish are able to orient to an electric field
- To appreciate why fish often have separate juvenile and adult habitats
- To understand the terms amphidromy, catadromy, diadromy, anadromy and oceanodromy
- To appreciate that scent navigation occurs in some fish migration
Module 3
Lesson 7
- To appreciate the relevance of gill filament thickness
- To enable the student to understand the gill ventilation process
- To appreciate ram gill ventilation
- To understand the adaptive advantages of cutaneous gas exchange
- To understand the anatomy of gills
Lesson 8
- To understand the terms benthopelagic, bathypelagic and mesopelagic
- To appreciate the different qualities of the marine polar environment
- Understand nototheniod fish adaptation
- To appreciate the benthic zone and the pressures put on fish that exist in such an environment
- Appreciate the term endemic
Lesson 9
To understand the basic anatomy of fish
To appreciate electro reception as a hunting and environmental monitoring adaptation
To enable the student to understand the basics of fish hearing
To understand the basic anatomy and physiology of the lateral line system
