| Course Title | One Health | ||
| Course Code | BS2025 | ||
| Offered | Study Year 2, Semester 2 | ||
| Course Coordinator | Hong Yan (Dr) | YHong@ntu.edu.sg | +65 69047232 |
| Pre-requisites | None | ||
| Mutually exclusive | BS0005 | ||
| AU | 3 | ||
| Contact hours | Lectures: 27, Tutorials: 12 | ||
| Approved for delivery from | |||
| Last revised | 16 Jan 2023, 15:57 | ||
From this foundation building and interdisciplinary course, you will learn the interdependent relationship among the health of human, animals and our shared environment. Starting from the basics of cross-species diseases and the dependence of human health on the environment, food and animals around us, you will further learn the principles and strategies to better our health through ensuring food safety, improving animal health and mitigation of climate change. With skills on risk assessment, disease surveillance and control, you will be able to identify emerging threats to human health and formulate holistic, systematic and integrated approaches for prevention and mitigation of the threats. This course will help your future careers in public health, medical research and development, teaching, public service as well as various bio-businesses. It will also benefit your personal health.
Upon successfully completing this course, you should be able to:
1. Human history in association with diseases, food and the environment.
2. Emerging and re-emerging vector borne and zoonotic diseases.
3. Importance and challenges of ONE HEALTH initiatives.
4. Vector borne diseases and disease-causing agents, mechanisms of transmission and control strategies.
5. Zoonosis and disease-causing agents, mechanisms of transmission and control strategies.
6. Foodborne diseases and disease-causing agents, mechanisms of transmission and control strategies
7. Principles and tools for laboratory diagnosis.
8. Public health epidemiology, outbreak investigations and management.
9. Surveillance and risk assessment.
10. One Health perspective on antimicrobial resistance.
11. Integrated food safety systems – international and local.
12. Feeding and healing our growing populations with modern biotechnology.
| Component | Course ILOs tested | SBS Graduate Attributes tested | Weighting | Team / Individual | Assessment Rubrics |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Continuous Assessment | |||||
| Project | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 | 1. a 2. a, b, d 3. b, e, f, g 4. a 5. a, c 6. a, b 7. b | 15 | team | See Appendix for rubric |
| Mid-semester Quiz | |||||
| Multiple Choice Questions CA1 | 1, 2, 3, 4 | 1. a 2. d 3. a, b, f, g 4. a 5. a, c 6. a, b 7. a, b | 15 | individual | See Appendix for rubric |
| Multiple Choice Questions CA2 | 3, 4, 5, 6 | 1. a 2. a, d 3. a, b, e, f 4. a, c 5. a, c 6. a, b | 15 | individual | See Appendix for rubric |
| Examination (2.0 hours) | |||||
| Multiple Choice Questions | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 | 1. a 2. d 3. b, f 4. a 5. c 6. b 7. b | 20 | individual | |
| Short Answer Questions | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 | 1. a 2. a, b, d, g 3. b, f, g 4. a, c 5. c 6. a, b 7. a, b | 35 | individual | See Appendix for rubric |
| Total | 100% | ||||
These are the relevant SBS Graduate Attributes.
1. Recognize the relationship and complexity between structure and function of all forms of life, resulting from an academically rigorous in-depth understanding of biological concepts
a. Possess a conceptual framework that identifies the relationships between the major domains in the field of biology.
2. Critically evaluate and analyze biological information by applying the knowledge, scientific methods and technical skills associated with the discipline
a. Identify the assumptions behind scientific problems and issues
b. Create and evaluate hypotheses
d. Design experiments relevant to authentic problems and their models
g. Evaluate the results of their own experiments and decide on the next step
3. Develop and communicate biological ideas and concepts relevant in everyday life for the benefit of society
a. Simplify and explain scientific concepts and results of experiments to a non-biologist (avoiding jargon)
b. Display and explain scientific results clearly and persuasively to peers both verbally and in writing (includes the ability to graph data appropriately and accurately).
e. Discuss current critical questions in the field of biology
f. Demonstrate an understanding of the social and natural context of knowledge (role of science in society, influence of society on science)
g. Demonstrate an understanding of the history of ideas and development of the major fields of biology
4. Acquire transferable and entrepreneurial skills for career development
a. Demonstrate innovative approaches to solving problems in biological science, leading to new approaches or techniques
c. Demonstrate a flair for conducting research
5. Develop communication, creative and critical thinking skills for life-long learning
a. Learn independently and then share that knowledge with others
c. Demonstrate critical thinking skills such as analysis, discrimination, logical reasoning, prediction and transforming knowledge
6. Develop codes of social responsibility and scientific ethics, particularly in relation to biological advancement and applications
a. Debate the ethical implications of scientific processes and results
b. Design human or animal experiments that do not cause harm
7. Demonstrate information literacy and technological fluency
a. Locate and evaluate information needed to make decisions, solve problems, design experiments, and understand scientific data
b. Work effectively with common technologies in biology
1. Feedback through tutorials: Each tutorial involves groups of about six students working together on field-related questions. You will present your findings/ideas/comments to the class followed by discussion. The lecturer will provide instant feedback.
2. Feedback through Quiz: Two MCQ quizzes are planned: CA1 covers the first 6 lectures and CA2 covers the next 6 lectures. Lecturers will go through quiz questions and elaborate those that are poorly answered or with confusion.
3. Feedback through the small group project: After the last lecture, you will choose one among listed topics and write an essay with no more than 1,500 words. Such essay will be marked online with comments, which will serve as another feedback for your learning.
4. Feedback through the Examiner's Report: It serves as a feedback and analysis on overall exam performance and achievement of various intended learning outcomes.
The above feedback channels apply to all learning outcomes.
| Lectures (27 hours) | The lectures are a critical vehicle to communicate the key points of a large body of knowledge regarding various aspects of ONE HEALTH. Acquiring the information presented in the lectures will provide the intellectual framework to achieve the Intended Learning Outcomes. A typical lecture will include basic principles and case studies to expand and enhance learning. Video viewing, Quick quiz or game playing will be parts of some lectures. |
| Tutorials (12 hours) | The tutorials are designed to present genuine scientific problems associated with the lecture content. The problems require you to work in groups to utilize what you learn in lecture to design experiments, interpret data and explain results published in the scientific literature. Class discussion will further enhance the learning process and cultivate capability of critical thinking, objective evaluation, presentation and communication skills. Lecturer will identify weakness of individual and the class before further elaboration. All learning outcomes are addressed in this context. |
1. Maloy, S. R., & Atlas, R. M. (2014). One Health: People, Animals, and the Environment. Washington, DC: ASM Press
2. Mackenzie, J. S., M. Jeggo, P. Daszak and J. A. Richt (2013). One Health: The Human-Animal-Environment Interfaces in Emerging Infectious Diseases. The Concept and Examples of a One Health Approach, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
3. Mackenzie, J. S., M. Jeggo, P. Daszak and J. A. Richt (2013). One Health: The Human-Animal-Environment Interfaces in Emerging Infectious Diseases. Food Safety and Security, and International and National Plans for Implementation of One Health Activities, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
1- It is your responsibility to be aware of and attend the two compulsory continual assessment exercises.
2- Although the lectures are recorded, your learning will be much more effective by physical attendance, especially by participating in class discussion.
3- As one general policy, we do not provide model answers to any tutorial or past exam essay questions.
4- You need to submit your group project essay by the deadline.If you have any question, feel free to contact the relevant lecturer in or after the class. We are all more than happy to discuss, read your attempts to solve the problems and provide constructive feedback. We are most impressed if you can present clear evidence that you have attempted to make a real effort towards the solution.
Good academic work depends on honesty and ethical behaviour. The quality of your work as a student relies on adhering to the principles of academic integrity and to the NTU Honour Code, a set of values shared by the whole university community. Truth, Trust and Justice are at the core of NTU’s shared values.
As a student, it is important that you recognize your responsibilities in understanding and applying the principles of academic integrity in all the work you do at NTU. Not knowing what is involved in maintaining academic integrity does not excuse academic dishonesty. You need to actively equip yourself with strategies to avoid all forms of academic dishonesty, including plagiarism, academic fraud, collusion and cheating. If you are uncertain of the definitions of any of these terms, you should go to the Academic Integrity website for more information. Consult your instructor(s) if you need any clarification about the requirements of academic integrity in the course.
| Instructor | Office Location | Phone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hong Yan (Dr) | SBS-02s-88g | +65 69047232 | YHong@ntu.edu.sg |
| Week | Topic | Course ILO | Readings/ Activities |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1. Human history in association with diseases, food and the environment. | 2, 4 | |
| 2 | 2. Emerging and re-emerging vector borne and zoonotic diseases. | 1, 2, 5 | |
| 3 | 3. Importance and challenges of ONE HEALTH initiatives. | 2, 3, 4 | |
| 4 | 4. Vector borne diseases and disease-causing agents, mechanisms of transmission and control strategies. | 1, 2, 5 | |
| 5 | 5. Zoonosis and disease-causing agents, mechanisms of transmission and control strategies. | 1, 2, 5 | |
| 6 | 6. Foodborne diseases and disease-causing agents, mechanisms of transmission and control strategies | 1, 2, 5 | |
| 7 | 7. Principles and tools for laboratory diagnosis. | 1, 2, 3, 6 | |
| 8 | 8. Public health epidemiology, outbreak investigations and management. | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 | |
| 9 | 9. Surveillance and risk assessment. | 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 | |
| 10 | 10. One Health perspective on antimicrobial resistance. | 1, 3, 6 | |
| 11 | 11. Integrated food safety systems – international and local. | 1, 2, 3, 4 | |
| 12 | 12. Feeding and healing our growing populations with modern biotechnology. | 1, 3, 4, 5 | |
| 13 | Revision | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 |
There will be one small group written essay. You will choose a topic from the list of few at the end of the course and submit the essay of fewer than 1,500 words before the examination date. You are expected to work in small groups of 2-4 students. To do well on the team project, it is necssary for you to demonstrate positive interdependence and teamwork. In principle, you will receive the same marks as your team. However, your individual score may vary based on feedback about your contributions to the group project.
Each question worths 7 marks, and the total score of five essay questions is 35 marks.
6-7 marks Question correctly interpreted and engaged. Factually correct and logical arguments are presented. For top marks, evidence of achievement of learning outcomes beyond the lecture notes is apparent.
4-5 marks Question is correctly interpreted and a logical solution is presented. Achievement of learning outcomes is apparent. Some incomplete understanding or minor factual errors may be apparent. Level of details expected for higher scoring may be missing.
3-4 marks Inadequate achievement of learning outcomes. Information relevant to the subject area of the question is presented but may be factually inaccurate. Essays scoring in this range often blindly reproduce memorized lecture slide material.
0-2 marks Student fails to engage the question. Information presented is not relevant and/or incorrect. No, or insignificant attempt made to answer.
As a result of this course, it is expected you will develop the following "big picture" attributes:
Through the course, you will appreciate the close interconnections among human, animal and environment and understand the importance of ONE WORLD ONE HEALTH approach to sustain human health.