Skies are blue, the sun is shining, and the 2014 in2scienceUK summer programme is well and truly underway. I have had the privilege to see several students on their placements already, and have been amazed at the variety of projects they’ve been involved in. Yesterday, I began my day at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology where our student has been learning about Müller glia and their role in neural regeneration. It was then on to see our student placed at the UCL Institute of Neurology, who was making a comparison of motor and sensory nerve cells using fluorescence microscopy.
Then, for a change of subject: it was on to UCL Computer Science. Following an insightful presentation by @manoj_r_v at our recent Skills Day, I’d already had my perceptions of this subject altered (in a good way!), and visiting Rae Harbird and her two in2scienceUK students further confirmed this. It was very interesting to see our students’ work using an Engduino device, which they’d programmed to change colour in response to a magnetic field (https://twitter.com/UCLEngEdu/status/497036657573765120). It was also wonderful to hear that these two female students were considering studying Computer Science.
Next stop was UCL Physics, where I interrupted Michael (a Physics PhD student) teaching what I’m told was second-year undergraduate level physics to our students. They showed me the Scanning Tunnelling Microscope that they’d been working with (it’s much smaller than you might imagine); I was then lucky enough to see a giant version at the London Centre for Nanotechnology. My last visit of the day was to UCL Chemistry, where our student has been learning about X-ray diffraction and methods of storing hydrogen.
In the coming weeks our students will be posting here about the exciting work they’ve been doing on their placements, so stay tuned to find out more.
by Angela Barrett