Hi there.
I'm Dr.
Katharine Hubbard, and I'm one of the lecturers on the BSc Biology programme.
And I'm here to talk to you today about the sort of practical training
that you can expect to get if you can do BSc Biology with us.
So we really believe in practical training as a practical team.
We think that some of the best learning happens in our practical labs,
not just in terms of getting to know the equipment and learning new techniques,
but also it allows for lots of collaboration.
So gets you thinking, working like a scientist.
It's a space that you can get to know other people in your course really well,
and it gives you the training of all sorts of interesting skills.
So what sorts of experiments might we do?
Well, we'll build it up for you so we know that people will have come
from different schools or different colleges
with different amounts of practical experience before.
So we make sure that everybody is kind of brought up to speed.
So we'll start your course with an intensive practical boot camp.
So introducing you to all the major things in the lab.
So pipettes, balances,
all the fundamental equipment
and we'll also introduce you to how we risk assess in the lab and how
you know, sort of how the lab works
so that you feel really confident in that environment.
We'll then start building it up through a series of experiments.
So in your first year, you could expect to do a gram stain
for testing what type of bacteria you've got growing on a plate.
You'd look and learn aseptic technique and we'll build it up and build it up.
So for example, in my module, which is called Cells and Organelles,
you will design your own experiment to test whether a herbicide
affects the photosynthetic electron transport chain, for example.
So we're giving you that training
not just in how to use the equipment, but how to think like a scientist.
So how many replicates do I need, how long do I need to incubate things for,
what are my controls?
how am I designing my experiment as we go through?
Then you'll do all sorts of interesting things.
So you'll do genetics practicals, so you'll extract DNA,
you will run electrophoresis gels, you'll do polymerase chain reaction,
you'll do sequencing based practicals,
and you'll also do bioinformatics type practicals.
So this is where we computationally take a lot of sequence data
and try to extract biological meaning from the sequences that we've got.
We'll also have biochemistry style type experiments.
So it depends on the modules you pick as to which experiments
you’ll get to do. Some of them are in core modules,
some of them are in optional modules.
But if you want to design your programme around
having lots of lab experience, then we can do that.
And then one thing that's new for BSc Biology that we're really excited
about is a new final year project option.
So in the final year project, what we're going to do is to take
some sort of microbe.
We're going to extract its DNA, we're going to sequence
the entire genome of the microbe, and you'll be involved in that.
And then doing what we call genome assembly.
So basically, if you sequence the genome, you get lots of little bits of sequence,
and then there's a computational challenge
to put the sequence all together in the right order.
So you've actually got the genome sequence we’ll teach you how to do that,
to sequence an entire organism that might not have been sequenced before.
We’ll then get you to make predictions as to, for example,
is that bacterium antibiotic resistant, and then we'll go and test those
in the lab in an intensive lab session that's going to teach you
all sorts of new techniques,
but also how to make chemicals from scratch, for example.
So if you think that you might want to become a Lab Technician or go into a lab
role in industry will make sure that you can make up buffers,
make up solutions, do all the sort of fundamental basic stuff
that would be expected in one of those entry level technician roles.
So where possible, we try to organiSe our practicals so their project based.
So you've got a hypothesis and you're testing that hypothesis, you're
designing the experiments as you can. Not all practicals run like that,
but where possible, that's how we're trying to make sure
the practicals are designed. In terms of the practical training,
we have two really nice teaching labs.
They’re flexible spaces, and we
have quite a big teaching technician team compared to some other universities.
So everything will be provided for you.
The technicians are brilliant, making sure that the practicals are well-supporte.
You'll have demonstrators so if there's a practical,
I would be running it as the Head of the lab.
So as the academic,
I'd be leading the practical and demonstrating things from the front.
I'd also sort of be going around the lab.
But to help me, I would have a couple of PhD students in the department.
So these are students
who've relatively recently gone through an undergraduate degree
and now are doing their postgraduate training.
They will be there to help you learn to use the equipment.
So we usually have one demonstrator for every 15 students or so.
So they're there to help you with the experiments, help
you use the equipment, help you build your confidence with the lab.
So I hope that's given you an overview of the sorts of things
that you can expect from our practical teaching.
As I say, we think it's really important and really valuable,
so we're trying to put as much practical into the degree as we can.
So hopefully that if you choose to do mostly lab based modules
through your degree, by the end of it, you'll come out with a really strong
portfolio of skills and hopefully have really enjoyed it.
My favorite teaching time is in the lab.
I love being in the lab with students.
I think it's great.
So hopefully if you come with us then you'll enjoy being in our
labs just as much as I do.