The objective of this course is to teach students who wish to learn how to measure the micrometeorological variables that affect animals and plants in the environments in which they live, and how to analyze the effects of these variables. The course is unique in that it is a combination of online videos and discussions and, if at all possible*, a field workshop. Since the course is multidisciplinary, the online videos are aimed at giving all participants enough background in biophysical ecology to use the methods taught in their own research and to facilitate their participation in the field workshop, should it take place*.
NB: All participating students must purchase the online videos at https://www.udemy.com/biophysical-field-methods/. In addition to the videos, all the exercises, required assignments and supplementary material are on the Udemy site.
Eligible Students: The course and workshop are aimed graduate students in the life sciences with appropriate backgrounds and will include a maximum of twenty, drawn from Israel, the USA, Namibia, South Africa, and other countries. Israeli students from universities other than BGU who wish to take the course for credit will need to be in touch both with their own graduate school and with the secretary of the Albert Katz International School for Desert studies (dschool@bgu.ac.il).
Instructors: Prof. (Emeritus) Berry Pinshow (*Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Swiss Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy Research) and Prof. (Emeritus) J. Scott Turner (State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry). This year Prof. Itamar Giladi (BIDR) and Prof. Kent Hatch (Dept. Of Organismal Biology, New College of Florida) will join us, as will students from New College.
*Until 2020, we were able to hold a 16-day field workshop at the Gobabeb Namib Desert Research Institute. We are now doing our best to reinstate the workshop. If we manage, it will be listed in the second semester as course 001-2-3135.
WHAT TO EXPECT IN THE COURSE
Online videos, questions, and answers: On Monday* afternoons from 17:00-19:00 Jerusalem time, beginning 19 October 2026, all participating students from Israel and other countries will meet using Zoom to view and discuss the ten lessons (57 short lectures) of the online videos that comprise the online component of Biophysical Field Methods (BPFM).
PLEASE NOTE, we expect all students to watch the week’s videos on the Udemy site at least once before we meet on Mondays. At our Monday meetings, after viewing the week’s segment of the course together, there will be time for questions, answers, and discussion. In addition, each week there will be exercises and assignments to do based on the videos viewed; these are to be found on the Udemy site course and discussed in the question-and-answer session of the following week. Attendance at all meetings of the course is obligatory.
There is no written report required, however discussion participation and responses to the online questions and assignments will all count towards the grades of students taking this course for credit.
For a taste of the course see https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyT7u-_dX7J3V16qRu2SPbyaZrruoN0wh and for a feeling of the environment at Gobabeb https://vimeo.com/170469670
If you are interested in taking this course, please contact me at pinshow@bgu.ac.il
- Prof. Berry Pinshow
- tamar.guy-haim@ocean.org.il