Interning with the education policy team at the RSB

The recent wave of Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) schemes have paved new ground for the enrichment of doctoral learning through extended transferable skills programmes. Through this scheme, I was introduced to the Royal Society of Biology, to work alongside their education policy team.

As a BBSRC-funded PhD candidate, I am part of the Midlands Integrative Biosciences Training Partnership (MIBTP): a consortium of three research-focused universities.

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Engaging the Silent Majority

How can you ensure all students in a teaching session have the opportunity to engage, be involved and interact?

This is the question that I wanted to address when I set out to understand why students choose to sit in a given location within the lecture theatre.

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Lifting the curtain – in celebration of LGBTQ+ scientists’ visibility

Who inspired you to find who you are or who you could be?

“Dear Minister,
I am a twelve-year-old Queer. I want to be a Queer artist like Michelangelo, Leonardo or Tchaikovsky.”

As a child, Derek Jarman, the film-maker, artist and gay-rights activist, knew who his heroes were. He looked up to them because their art spoke to him. It could have been the male form freed from the grip of the marble by the hands of the sculptor, the ingeniousness and charm of the artist-inventor, or the emphatic and dramatic colour of the composer of ballet music, the earnest quality of their work validated his own ambition to be an artist – a Queer artist.

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“Parliament is a stronger body because of the scientists present today.”

It was another packed room for this year’s Parliamentary Links Day, organised by the Royal Society of Biology on behalf of the science and engineering community.

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The debate on regulation of heritable genome editing

Nature has published a letter from a group of scientists and bioethicists calling for a moratorium on the clinical use of heritable genome editing.

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‘To believe is to be able’

A study of developing self-efficacy in undergraduate biologists at the University of Hull by the HE Bioscience Teacher of the Year, Dominic Henri.

I strongly believe that the process of Higher Education should provide the opportunity for students to overcome a wide range of barriers, which can then be drawn upon to bolster self-belief in the pursuit of their personal aspirations.

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Is my grade 9 an A*? Making sense of science qualification reforms

Over the last few years teachers and students in England have seen significant changes to A Levels and GCSEs in the sciences as reformed qualifications have been phased in.

The cohort receiving GCSE awards on Thursday 23rd will be the first to have studied the new biology and combined science GCSEs, graded on a 9 to 1 scale.

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What exactly is the Industrial Strategy?

Despite the hot weather there was “standing room only for science” according to Chi Onwurah MP at the 30th anniversary of Parliamentary Links Day, the 10th event in this series to be opened by Speaker of the House of Commons Rt Hon John Bercow MP.

This year’s theme was Science and the Industrial Strategy and the room was abuzz and full to capacity: Prime Minister Theresa May sent remarks and congratulations on the timely theme, and importance of this event on the Parliamentary calendar. Read more »

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Interning with the RSB science policy team

When an email dropped into my inbox advertising the opportunity to undertake an RCUK policy internship, I was initially apprehensive about applying.

I wasn’t sure what policy work would entail, I knew little about the RSB, I wasn’t sure if I’d like to live in London and I was unsure if I’d be able to take three months away from my PhD. What would my supervisor think?

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An LGBT+ champion: Professor Ben Barres, one of the first transgender neuroscientists

The first international day for LGBTQ+ scientists in STEM aims to be a celebration of diversity in science. Organised by Pride in STEM, House of STEM, InterEngineering and oSTEM, the day is the first of its kind to celebrate the LGBT+ community across all the sciences.

The important goal of the organisers and supporters – among them, the Royal Society of Biology of which I am proud member – is to recognise scientists who identify themselves as LGBTQ+ within the STEM community.

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