Centre Update July 2011
Contents
Centre News
- By completing our short survey at https://www.survey.bris.ac.uk/heacademy/heabio11 (the survey will close at midnight on Friday 29 July 2011); and
- By sending us a brief account of how a specific event, publication etc has helped or informed your work. Please name the event or publication, tell us what it prompted you to do, what the effect(s) was/were, what difference this has made for you and your students, and how you know (what evidence do you have that something has changed – hopefully, for the better?). You can send this to us in an email or as an attachment to an email to Jackie Wilson (j.j.wilson@leeds.ac.uk). There are some examples of what others have previously sent us at www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/ftp/impact/Examples of HEABIO Impact_compiled Sept2010.pdf Please send your stories to us by Wednesday 10 August 2011 at the latest.
Your comments will be shared with and appreciated by Centre staff, and will be used in our final annual report to the Higher Education Academy and our funders.
Prize draw
Your views are genuinely important to us. As a token of our appreciation all respondents will be entered in to a draw to win one of two prizes of up to £125 travel expenses to support attendance at a Centre or HEA event this autumn. Thank you, in advance, for your support and comments.
- on Small Group Work, Postgraduate Demonstrators and Teachers, and Linking Teaching and Research?
- Longer publications such as: A Survey of the Mathematics Landscape within Bioscience Undergraduate and Postgraduate UK Higher Education? or perhaps Working with International Students: a guide for staff in the Biosciences?
- Want to pre-order upcoming publications such as the Bioethics Briefing? Self- and Peer-Asssessment: Guidance on Practice in the Biosciences, 2nd edition?
2011 Bioscience Teacher of the Year Award goes to.....Jon Scott, University of Leicester!
At the Centre's Effective Learning in the Biosciences International Conference, the 2011 Bioscience Teacher of the Year awards were presented to the winner, Jon Scott, and runners-up, Carol Wakeford ( University of Manchester) who was Highly Commended by the panel and our other finalists, Phil Langton (University of Bristol) and, in his absence, Richard Milne (University of Edinburgh).
For more information on the outcomes, case studies, and the Bioscience Teacher of the Year Award please visit www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/funding/recognition/award.aspx
We are pleased to announce that we have been able to facilitate a new partnership between the Society of Biology and Oxford University Press that will see continuation of a national Bioscience Teacher of the Year award. Details of the process for 2012 and a call for applications will be issued at the start of the next academic year.
Bioscience Education Volume 17
Interested in learning more about how others have worked on various teaching and learning topics in the biosciences, such as:
- Biological Fieldwork Provision in Higher Education?
- The End of the Botany Degree in the UK?
- Promoting Enquiry and Active Learning Through Project Work?
- Development and Evaluation of an Undergraduate Science Communication Module?
- When Majority Doesn't Rule: The Use of Discrimination Indices to Improve the Quality of MCQs?
For the latest volume of our peer-reviewed on-line journal, please visit www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/journal/vol17/
Thanks to everyone who was able to participate in our first International conference at the end of June and 1st of July 2011. We are especially grateful to our many visitors from around the world, speakers and participants, who provided the international perspective we hoped to achieve! The Conference was very well received in both informal and formal feedback.
Presentations from the conference are now available at www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/bioconf/outlineprogramme.aspx as well as the poster presentations that can be viewed at www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/bioconf/posters.aspx
The withdrawal of funding for Subject Centres by the HEA means the UK Centre for Bioscience will close at the end of December 2011.
Between August and December 2011 the UK Centre for Bioscience will undertake a limited programme of activities and will support the transition to a new organisational arrangement that will see subject-specfic support coordinated from the HEA in York. As well as facilitating the transfer of the valued resources collated and developed with your support over the last decade, the following activities are planned for autumn 2011:
If you have contributed to resources or publications produced by the Centre then we may contact you soon about their transfer. We would ask that you respond quickly and positively to these requests in order that your contributions and resources can continue to be available for the benefit of the bioscience learning and teaching community.
For the latest news on the changes, please see www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/news/futurehea.aspx
News and update on HEA academic support and services for 2011-12
The HEA announced Dr Janet De Wilde as the Head of STEM who is coming from the University of Edinburgh. For more information please visit www.heacademy.ac.uk/news/detail/2011/Heads_of_STEM_SocScience_announcements
The HEA paper outlines details of its support services from 2011-12. You can download the paper from the central HEA web site at www.heacademy.ac.uk/aboutus/plans
Do you have an Educational Resource to recommend to our Discipline Consultants and Learning Technologists?
The discipline consultants working on our OeRBITAL project have been busy scouring Open Educational Resource (OER) repositories and networks, and the collection of Open educational Resources for Bioscientists Involved in Teaching and Learning wiki is building nicely. Can you help us expand the collection further? If you have encountered Open Educational Resources (see the OER Infokit description) which you feel are worthy of promotion to other bioscientists please share these with us and the wider teaching community by visiting the Suggestions box of the wiki. Also, please tell your colleagues about the wiki and encourage them to contribute too. For more information please see the OeRBITAL Project Wiki or contact Chris Taylor, OeRBITAL Project Officer via c.d.taylor@leeds.ac.uk
Centre Staff
Katherine Clark and her husband announce the birth of their daughter Elspeth Emily who was born at 3:30 am on 7th July 2011 weighing 6lb. We wish them all the best!
Jill Anderson-Clarke has taken up a post at the University of Leeds, Faculty of Arts as an Undergraduate Admissions Assistant effective 4th July 2011.
David Adams will join Cogent Sector Skills Council, as Director of Science and Research, from 1st September 2011.
Julie Peacock has accepted a post as an Academic Development Officer (STEM) working on Teaching Development Grants & Journals with the HEA starting in September 2011.
Sheryl Meskin will join the University of Leeds as a Programme Leader for an Interdisciplinary Science (STEM) Foundation Year effective 1st August 2011.
Centre Events
We are currently finalising dates and venues for our Feedback event in mid -October and our series of one day events aimed at postgraduates who teach. Look out for further details soon on our website at www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/events/bioevents.aspx
News from the HE Learning and Teaching Community
Request for information regarding accessibility of practicals for students with visual impairment
A National HE STEM funded participatory project is seeking to develop guidance for good practice in assisting students with visual impairments (VI) in STEM subjects at the university level, with particular emphasis on inclusive laboratory provision and positive pre-entry outreach. The key part of the project is to consider ways of supporting students with VI (noting this has degrees of severity) in them actually doing the labs and not as often has been the case where someone else does the lab for them.
Jane Pritchard is leading research focusing on laboratory provision at undergraduate level. She would be extremely grateful if you could take the time to answer the 5 questions listed in the survey outline at www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/ftp/surveys/ VI_Stem_survey.doc All respondents will be circulated the final projects reports when the project is completed in 2012.
Events from the HE Learning and Teaching Community
Enhancing Fieldwork Learning Showcase Event
Friday 16th - Sunday 18th September 2011, FSC Margam, Port Talbot, Wales
This National Teaching Fellowship Project funded by the HEA invites you to attend and contribute to a showcase event to share and exchange ideas and practice with regards to using technology such as Geographical Information System (GIS), geotagging, digital storytelling, social networking and other Web 2.0 technologies to enhance fieldwork learning.
The event is limited to 25 places which will be allocated on a first come, first serve basis. Limited funding is available to support attendance/participation at this event. Early career practitioners are encouraged to attend and apply for supporting bursary(s).
For more information, please check the project web site for updates http://www.enhancingfieldwork.org.uk or follow us on Twitter @fieldwork_ntf
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