This is a practical science module – study investigative topics, including drugs, food safety and pesticides. Carry out activities exploring investigative biology and chemistry skills and techniques. Conduct online and home investigations to develop practical skills, including experimental design, good laboratory practice, and data handling, interpretation and reporting. Plus, improve your science communication skills by participating in an online journal club.
This online module consists of four interdisciplinary topics. It will develop your practical and investigative skills and cover concepts commonly met in biology and chemistry. Each topic will build your skills through home and online investigations.
Topic 1: The investigative scientist
This topic introduces you to the role of the investigative scientist and investigative scientific thinking. You’ll be introduced to key concepts underlying laboratory science in biology and chemistry, and will look at key investigative skills like managing data, designing experiments and safety. Through home investigations and online experiments, you’ll be introduced to separation science aspects that underpin many laboratory work areas in chemical and bioscience laboratories. Finally, you’ll collaborate with other students to complete a group investigation, combining the skills you’ve learned.
Topic 2: Investigating food safety
In this topic, you’ll investigate food safety from chemical and biological perspectives and develop your skills in conducting practical investigations. You’ll complete two investigations.
In the first investigation, you’ll remotely access apparatus in a laboratory at the OU campus. You’ll be introduced to the principles and practice underlying the laboratory technique of spectrophotometry and will apply this knowledge to investigate the concentration of iron in nutritional supplements.
The second investigation introduces you to theoretical and practical considerations associated with common microbiological and molecular techniques. You’ll apply this knowledge to conduct online experiments to identify a microbiological contaminant and decide whether it can be treated with an antibiotic.
You’ll also have an opportunity to find and share an article relating to food safety as part of an informal online journal club with members of your tutor group. This is a great chance to develop your science communication skills, and once completed, you’ll have the opportunity to earn a digital microbadge.
Topic 3: Investigating pesticides
In this topic, you’ll investigate pesticides from chemical and biological perspectives, using gas chromatography-mass spectrophotometry (GC-MS) and model organisms as a biological tool. You’ll complete two investigations.
In the first investigation, you’ll revisit key data handling and experimental design concepts from Topic 1 and be introduced to aspects of statistical analysis. You’ll apply this knowledge to design an experimental protocol to study the effect of a pesticide on its biological target in an online experiment.
In the second investigation, you’ll consider the importance of validated scientific methods and develop your understanding of separation science from Topic 1. You’ll use GC-MS to identify pesticides in fruit and determine whether they are safe to eat.
Topic 4: Investigating drug metabolism
In this final topic, you’ll revisit some techniques from earlier in the module. You’ll be using online experiments to investigate how drug metabolism varies between individuals, using the example of a common painkiller. You’ll need to apply skills you have developed throughout the module to make decisions about the design of your investigations to collect, analyse, interpret and report data to determine the relationship between a person’s genes and their ability to metabolise drugs.
There are no formal entry requirements for this module.
At The Open University, we believe education should be open to all, so we provide high-quality university education to anyone who wishes to realise their ambitions and fulfil their potential.
Even though there are no entry requirements, you’ll need appropriate knowledge of biology or chemistry obtained through:
Are you ready for S285?
We recommend that you’ve completed:
You’ll be able to access the module website 2–3 weeks before the module starts, so you can learn to navigate the website and organise your study plan. A module primer contains the basic concepts you should understand. You can use this primer to refresh your knowledge before starting your studies or as a resource throughout.
You’ll get help and support from an assigned tutor throughout your module.
They’ll help by:
Online tutorials run throughout the module. While they’re not compulsory, we strongly encourage you to participate. Where possible, we’ll make recordings available.
Course work includes:
The School of Life, Health and Chemical Sciences offers optional laboratory schools in Milton Keynes at an additional cost. Laboratory schools are not part of this module but may be of interest if you wish to gain relevant hands-on laboratory experience.
Further information and instructions for booking are on the Laboratory skills for biology and health (SS022) website.
You’ll have access to a module website, which includes:
Additionally, the website includes:
The OU strives to make all aspects of study accessible to everyone, and this Accessibility Statement outlines what studying S285 involves. You should use this information to inform your study preparations and any discussions with us about how we can meet your needs.
To find out more about what kind of support and adjustments might be available, contact us or visit our Disability support website.
Investigative approaches in biology and chemistry (S285) starts once a year – in October.
It will next start in October 2026.
We expect it to start for the last time in October 2028.
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