Has Lab Rats sparked your interest in science? Why not find out more with the Open University who have a range of courses available.

The Level 2 courses described below are fairly accessible to people who haven't studied much before, but obviously some prior knowledge would help. Level 3 courses do assume background knowledge of content and study skills and Masters of Science courses assumes that students are already have a degree.

Level 2

(SK277) Human Biology
In this course you'll learn about human biology in a way that connects it directly with health and disease. It starts with the concept of a healthy body and explores the mechanisms that enable it to maintain its integrity. The physiology of each body system is explained separately, but the overall emphasis of the course is on interaction and co-ordination. After studying this course, you'll have enough background to appreciate how systems can fail and what kinds of medical interventions can be successful.

(Sd226) Biological Psychology
This course presents an integrated, interdisciplinary approach to the brain, behavioural and psychological sciences. It concentrates on human examples, and so also considers the implications of our knowledge of behaviour and the nervous system for human health. It asks such questions as, What do biologists and psychologists understand by the concepts of brain and consciousness? How do we study the brain? What is its structure and composition? How does it develop? What is schizophrenia? Observation and experiment are emphasized, and you will carry out some investigations yourself.

(DSE212) Exploring Psychology
This course gives you a good grounding in psychology and provides an overview of the subject matter it introduces basic perspectives and methods in psychology and explains their relevance to everyday life and their application in practice. In order to do this, the course explains a range of psychological topics including learning, identity, perception, memory, gender and consciousness.

Level 3

(S324) Animal Physiology
This course examines how 'whole animals' work; explaining how vertebrate body systems interact, how coordination is achieved and how the physiology of animals is related to their environment. Topics include how animals cope with extreme temperature and shortage of oxygen; gamete formation, conception, gestation, birth; the physiological basis of growth and the implications of body size for physiological processes and animal function; the structure and function of muscle, bone, joints and tendons; and their role in animal movement on land, in swimming and in flight.

(SD329)Signals and Perception: The Science of the Senses
This interdisciplinary course uses fundamental concepts from biology, chemistry, physics and psychology to explain how we interact with our environment through the five senses - hearing, sight, smell, taste and touch. For each of the senses the course describes how sensation begins with a stimulus that is converted into an electrochemical impulse, and how that is transmitted to the brain. We look at how the brain combines these messages, the process psychologists call 'perception'. The course presents the latest advances in the science of the senses in a way that is accessible to students pursuing a wide variety of degree studies.

Masters Level

(SD805) Issues in Brain and Behaviour
This course looks at the way in which many different disciplines can contribute to an explanation of issues in brain and behaviour. Biological, psychological and social perspectives are examined.

Content last updated: 24/08/2005