Research Skills School for FE students studying land-based subjects

LEAD ORGANISATION

University of Reading

ADDITIONAL ORGANISATIONS INVOLVED

BCA (Berkshire College of Agriculture)

PROJECT SUMMARY

In May 2009, Progress South Central funded a pilot Research Skills School for six high- achieving BTEC National Diploma students from BCA. The event was organised and hosted by the University of Reading's School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, strengthening their link with BCA first developed via VETNET, the national Lifelong Learning Network for veterinary and animal-related subjects. All the students were studying the BTEC National Diploma in Animal Management at the time of the event.

The aim was to give the students a chance to experience a university setting and learn about research being carried out at the University of Reading. On the first day, the students visited the Centre for Dairy Research and were introduced to some of the research currently being carried out by the Animal Science Research Group. They were also given the opportunity to carry out an experiment to determine the starch content of different feeds. This allowed them to gain some hands on experimental experience as well as discovering some of the problems and issues associated with investigative work.

The following day was spent carrying out animal behaviour studies at Cotswold Wildlife Park with the students choosing to study meerkats, a tree shrew and leaf cutter ants. Each group came up with a question that they wanted to investigate and then recorded the data needed. They analysed the data and produced posters to present their results. This task allowed them to carry out a short research project from start to finish.

On the final day, the students presented their work as a poster to members of the Animal Science Research Group. The event concluded with Professor Richard Ellis (Dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences), awarding prizes for the best poster and best over-all project, voted for by the Animal Science Research Group staff.

IMPACT

Feedback from students was very positive. Almost all the group agreed that the event had been enjoyable, relevant to their study and that they had learnt a great deal from it. Selected comments from students include:

"The teaching was good, really useful"

"Very good and liked the informal teaching methods"

"Enjoyed it very much and a very good insight into uni life"

"It was really good fun, would definitely recommend it"

"Behaviour studies at the zoo were amazing and really had to use our skills"

The aspects of the event rated most interesting and useful by the students were the wildlife park trip, the process of making and presenting the poster and the chance to see the campus and talk to university students.

In 2009-10, in order to incorporate a residential aspect into the event, the Research Skills School was incorporated into the Summer School for students studying land-based subjects, held at the beginning of July 2010.