January/ February 2016

Widening Participation

and Outreach News

Welcome to the RVC Access Department’s Widening Participation newsletter. This is for

teachers, RVC staff and students to find out about recent activities and how to get involved!

New projects- January 2016

Baby T Rex project! Structure and Motion Lab & City of London Academy

Bento-Bio: ‘Is it horse meat?!’

Activity with Regent’s High School

Year 8 pupils at City of London Academy, Southwark, recently enjoyed the chance to construct dinosaur models

which were the actual size of baby T-Rexes! They first visited our Camden campus to draw anatomy, and make

plaster of paris bones based on chicken bones. Following that, we went to City of London academy for the

construction phase involving Modroc, wire, card, tissue paper and even 3D printed T rex skulls. You will be able to

find out more about this project at our public event Night at the Vet College on March 17th, and it links to Professor

John Hutchinson’s recent TV work ‘Attenborough and the Giant Dinosaur’ which has been on BBC this month.

This project bridged art and science and aimed to inspire young people through meeting science researchers and

students. We will be using aspects of this activity in our Summer Schools. With thanks to Professor John

Hutchinson, teacher Ben Frimnet, Dr Lauren Summer-Rooney, Dr Vivien Allen, Dr Andrew Cuff, student

ambassadors Emily Turgoose and Annika Hall, and Andrew Crook.

Year 12 students at Regent’s High School visited our Camden

Campus with Science and Technology subject leader Alex

Scoullos, to help advise about prototypes of an exciting new

piece of science equipment developed by researchers Bethan

Wolfenden and Philipp Boeing called Bento Lab. It includes a

PCR machine, centrifuge and gel electrophoresis capability, but

is desktop sized with the aim of facilitating more people to be

able to carry out experiments.

Pupils were given a scenario: they had to test supermarket meat

samples to establish which species the meat originated from!

Through visiting RVC pupils reinforced their understanding of

DNA identification techniques on their syllabus, and they will also

be able to come back in and see the outcome of their feedback.

Thanks to Alex Scoullos, Bethan Wolfenden, student ambassdors

Rachel Andrews, Lizzie Pengelly; and Andrew Crook.

Ongoing activities

Biology Masterclass: Professor Dominic Wells, Camden School for Girls

Afternoon Anatomy

RVC Widening Participation and Outreach News

How do muscles work? Professor Nic Wells devised and

taught a biology masterclass with Isi Adeola, for pupils from

Camden School for Girls (which also accepts boys at sixth

form, if you are confused by the picture!). Pupils used

microscopes to draw and compare samples of tissue, to

identify evidence of Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy. They

were able to see in vitro muscle physiology using an

Electronic Muscle Stimulator machine to produce

electromyographs. This curriculum linked session also

covered university application advice and Q & A time with

student ambassadors.

Afternoon Anatomy is our popular Wednesday afternoon session where pupils take part in a museum anatomy

quiz, and are able to try out their veterinary skills by using a stethoscope to listen to the hearts of a real pony

and cow. We offer this to pupils from Year 6 upwards to enrich class teaching, covering curriculum objectives

about animal adaptations appropriate to age level.

This month we have hosted Oaklands School Year 10, Tower Hamlets and St Paul’s Primary Year 6, Camden.

With thanks to Andrew Crook, Sarah Nicoll, and student ambassadors Rhian Jeffreys, Phoebe Griffith, Michelle

Reichert and Emma Hammond.

Afternoon Anatomy and Biology Masterclasses have some spaces left for

Summer Term. Contact Outreach Officer Isi Adeola to book:

isiadeola@rvc.ac.uk

If you would like to find out more about this subject, there will be a demonstration at our public event ‘Night at

the Vet College’ on March 17th. With thanks to Professor Nic Wells, Mei Alvarado, STEM co-ordinator at CSG,

Year 12 and student ambassadors Chelsey Betts and Hasita Dodhia.

These sessions are run every month on a Wednesday afternoon from 1-3pm. Since this is our first newsletter,

we would also like to thank other staff who hosted sessions:

• Professor Robert Abayasekarah on the topic of Reproduction (Westminster City School Y12)

• Dr Sharon Kendall- Microbiology workshop (Oaklands School Y12, Tower Hamlets)

• Dr Mark Cleasby- ‘Diabetes’ (Regent’s High School Biology A level students, Camden)

Ongoing activities

Higher Education/Careers Fairs

Thank you very much to the following staff and student ambassadors who have attended or

assisted with careers fairs during January. We spoke to prospective students about our biology,

veterinary medicine and veterinary nursing degree courses at the following events:

• Dr Rob Fowkes; East Barnet Secondary- January 8th

• Student ambassdors Emily Stacey and Matthew Weir; Mark Rutherford Secondary,

Bedford- January 21st

• Student ambassadors Raynae Hall and Charlotte Gresham;

Canons High School, Harrow- January 27th

• Student ambassadors Steph Phillips, James Tate; The Wellington Academy, Wilshire-

January 28th. Thanks also to Rebecca Bostock for help with this event

• Dr Donald Palmer, Lucy Garnsworthy (LBIC) and student ambassadors Emma Hammond

and Charlotte Dawson; City and Islington College, January 29th

Teacher events

Traditionally a quieter month, January has been a great time for us to meet teachers at a few recent events:

Access HE Year 8 expo meeting, London Metropolitan University, January 20th

Careers and science co-ordinators from Islington, Camden, Hackney and Brent attended this meeting at

London met, which was opened by their VC Professor John Raftery. Teachers discussed their needs for a

forthcoming collaborative event which is joint with London Metropolitan University, Middlesex University and the

University of Hull. Thanks to student ambassador Jade Johnson.

Sutton Trust Teacher CPD event, Royal College of Nursing- January 25th

Thanks to student ambassadors Jess Timmins and Michael Haynes for accompanying us to talk about our free

residential Summer School, which is for widening participation students. The residential will take place July

25th-29th at the Hawkshead campus.

Aimhigher Teacher event, Jo Richardson School, Dagenham- January 25th

This event was a chance for us to present information about Widening Particpation activities to teachers from

East London boroughs; also attended by staff from the London School of Economics, University of East

London, Westminster University, Queen Mary and London South Bank Universities.

RVC Widening Participation and Outreach News

Postgraduate bursaries worth £10,000

Forthcoming Events

RVC Widening Participation and Outreach News

The following bookable events are taking place in February and March 2016. Please

get in touch if you would like to find out more information or click the link to book.

February

• Feb 12th Big Bang Fair, Rye College

• Feb 16th Museum Open afternoon, Camden Campus, 2-4pm FREE

• Feb 17th Equine Careers Day, Camden Campus, 10.30am-4pm FREE

• Feb 18th Dairy Day, Bolton’s Park Farm, 9am-4pm £80 plus VAT

March

• Mar 11th Royal Institution Lates event: Surviving in Space

• Mar 17th Night at the Vet College funded by The Physiological Society, 5.30-10pm FREE

Royal Institution Christmas Lectures: Professor Andrew Pitsillides & team

If you watched the Royal Institution Christmas lectures during the Christmas break you would have seen work by

Professor Andy Pitsillides and his team! The research was about the way bones react to being in periods of low

gravity, and it was demonstrated by showing models of bone structure; how it would become weaker when

astronauts spend time in space. You can see presenter Dr Kevin Fong demonstrating this with our bone models in

the picture. With thanks to scientists Professor Andy Pitsillides, Dr Behzad Javaheri, PhD student Alessandro

Felder; and Xavier De Kestelier of Foster + Partners who assisted with the bone models. If you would like to know

more, then RVC Outreach staff will be at the Ri Lates event to explain more on Friday March 11th, maybe we will

see you there!

If you would like to work with us or would

like us to attend your event please contact

Outreach Manager Dr Grace Sim:

gsim@rvc.ac.uk

Click the RVC logo to visit our website. RVC campuses are based in Camden, London NW1 0TU and Potter’s Bar, Herts, AL9 7TA