Course overview
The aims of this course are to provide students with an understanding of the first 1000 days of development and their importance for lifelong health. Students will learn about the mechanisms of development during this period, key exposures and their long-term consequences, and how interventions before and during this window can improve long-term health. Students will gain foundational knowledge of early human development, and will develop and practice critical thinking, problem solving and communication skills in small-group tutorials. This course introduces students to core concepts and skills that prepares them for lifelong understanding and successful future study, with particular relevance for reproduction and childhood health, physiology and public health.
- Biology Of The First 1000 Days
- Exposures - Mechanisms - Outcomes
- Networks & Interventions
Course learning outcomes
- Define key developmental stages and events that occur during the first 1000 days of human development from conception, and their corresponding requirements for optimal development
- Describe the effects of key adverse exposures during the first 1000 days on later development and long-term health
- Summarise the mechanistic basis for long-term impacts of exposures during the first 1000 days
- Explain examples of interventions at the individual, family, community and societal levels that act before and during the first 1000 days to improve life-long development and health
- Demonstrate systems level thinking by explaining inter-relationships between biological and social factors during the first 1000 days