Work placements and placement years

We offer our students the chance to complete a placement year between their second and third years of study and summer placements. Not only does this give extra experience and learning opportunities, it also gives a taster of the world of work within a chosen field. Over the next few weeks, I hope to be able to put up several pieces from students giving their impressions of what it is like and what they are getting out of it.

Hayley Burston (BSc Exercise, Nutrition and Health) is first up:

"In the summer of my second year studying Exercise, Nutrition and Health, I was given the opportunity to complete a work placement at the University fitness centre. Although my degree taught me a lot about nutrition, exercise and physiology, the work placement allowed these skills to be put into a practical situation, helping to further my understanding of the areas taught in my degree.

Not only did the placement solidify the information from lectures, it established an understanding of the work environment and taught me the basic practices that must be applied within the industry. Any work placement will help someone to consider their future career and this enabled me to see that I was taking the right direction.

From this placement, I have subsequently got a part-time job at the gym which allows me to continually apply my knowledge, not only benefiting my future, but also my third year studies. It has helped me to become organised with University work, a key skill for the present and future. I have already applied topics learnt from the degree by redesigning the Personal Programme Form. The independence has helped to increase my confidence in completing the degree and in situations within the fitness industry." 

Hayley at work in the University Fitness Centre

Summer Studentship Conference

Each year we offer summer bursaries to our students who are just finishing their second year. This allows them 6-8 weeks of research experience with our staff during the holidays. This all culminates in a poster conference where students present the work that they performed:



Naina being quizzed by (and having errors pointed out by) Nick



If you write Macrophage in the title, Dr Foey will be wanting to know what you did!



All of those cytokines seemed to have got to Jen

 These bursaries offer students a taster of what research is like but don't take my word for it!

Over to Naina Verma, a third year Biomed student who worked on the effect of of anti-diabetic sulfonylureas on mitochondrial activity in pancreatic beta cells with Dr Charlie Affourtit:

"What I gained from doing the summer placement was a new fascination for research which I did not entirely experience during the occasional practical sessions taken during the term period.  For the lab research my supervisor had given me a question which I had to do my research on.  Your enthusiasm builds so much for the work you do because it becomes your own project, you learn from any errors you make and become so eager find a reliable answer to your proposed question.  I liked independent study and I also understood the importance of searching a wide array of scientific papers to aid my research.  I developed an understanding of using scientific papers to support the reason for why I was doing the experiment in a certain way.  Now I know how scientists in their day-to-day jobs use scientific papers to support their research.  I can confidently say that I would have not been even close to being prepared to do a third year dissertation if it was not for me doing the summer project.  A very obvious benefit i gained within these 8 weeks was learning basic techniques which is used in a lot of research such as how to culture and maintain cells using aseptic techniques and keeping the growth environment consistent.  Cell culture might seem like a very basic technique but it does take multiple attempts to become confident to do it well.  Finally an added value with doing a summer project is the chance of getting to interact with a lot of the course lecturers.  I would hopefully like to think that it has built rapport with them and that they can see your willingness to do well.  Overall, I would recommend to everyone, if you have the chance to do a summer project you definitely will not regret it."

Induction Week

In our school, the week of graduation is a special week as we say goodbye to one student cohort on the Monday and welcome our new cohort of freshers bright and early on Tuesday morning! Induction week is designed to be a mix of serious activities (lab inductions, microscope session, meeting tutors) as well as some that are more fun (quizzes, days out etc). Friday sees our annual trip to Mt Edgcumbe, just a short boat ride into Cornwall, for an informal day meeting fellow students and staff alike with lunch and a beer in the Edgcumbe Arms.

Our annual trip to Mt Edgcumbe

This year also saw the first annual drinks reception for staff and all new students in the graduation marquees on the Hoe. While the author of these posts was, unfortunately, not present, he has seen some "interesting" photos of several staff members at the reception "enjoying the entertainment". As soon as he manages to get his hands on digital copies of said photos, they will (death threats aside) appear here - Watch this space!!!

EDIT - Photos below! We can open the first one up for a caption competition via the comments on the bottom of this post (Keep it clean and respectable please - I'll moderate anything that is not!)

Dr John Moody seems worried about the growth on Paul's head

Dr Paul Ramsay showing his circus skills

Dr Andy Foey has an idea in the middle of the party

Graduation

The best day of the year for both staff and students! Our graduation ceremonies are held on the Hoe, offering a picturesque setting. We'll leave the photos to tell the rest.

Cheer up Graham!

2012 graduates lining up for the class photo

Biomed/Biology Video

Stop laughing at the back!

Showcase Day

Today is the annual Showcase day on the Hoe. Many of our staff, students and technicians are involved in showing schoolchildren and the public the sorts of things we do at the University.

Jenny Harris demonstration sensory perceptions of colour and taste

Dr Simon Fox

Tony demonstrating the extraction of DNA from a banana using household chemicals

Cos, Sarah, Michele and Matt

Matt and Niketa explaining antibiotic resistance

Showcase Event

If you happen to be in Plymouth on Tuesday 11th of September, why not pop up to the Hoe and visit the Faculty of Science and Technology showcase event (in the big marquees) from 3.30 to 5.30 to see what sorts of things we do in terms of scientific research.