The organization and functioning of academic research as well as academic publishing are introduced and applied: students critically review two term papers written by their student colleagues. Based on the reviews, the authors of the papers write reply letters and revise their own term papers. They finally present their topic during an in-house "mini-conference" with a talk.

Individual writing of an essay-type review paper about a specialized topic in the field of ecology and evolution, based on substantial reading of original literature and discussions with a senior scientist.