All the participants read the same publication at home and it is discussed in the seminar. The basic idea is, that an original paper reflects quite accurately the way of scientific working of a scientist. This strategy stresses mainly the methods used and the way of presenting the results, whereas the subject content of the publication is less important. In this way the learned is transferable to other fields in biology and natural sciences. I have also offered seminars in which teaching aids were produced by the participants, and some of them are referred to in this part.
Courses are the most effective teaching arrangements to get to know the field of chronobiology.
The students have 2 to 3 weeks time for the practical studies, are, however, already familiar with the field and the methods by an introductory seminar. It is of much value to work on projects which have not been studied so far. It is, however, necessary to have the recording methods and other aids available. Otherwise too much time has to be invested which is then lacking for the studies themself. Often research studies in the field of chronobiology are started as a consequence of working with such a project in a course.