Big Biology Day, October 2019
Laura Bond, Alexis Braun, Gaspar Bruner-Montero, Alex Leitao, Arunkumar Ramesh and Ghazal Seidi took part in the Big Biology Day at Hills Road Sixth Form on 05 October 2019.
Attendees got to play an interactive game to show what a large number of biologists do daily, identify common Drosophila melanogaster phenotypes. They also played a game where they identified different species of fruit flies that are worked on in the department. We also had a demonstration of a fruit fly larvae actively defending itself against parasitoid infection under a mounted microscope and explained the parasitoid life cycle in relation to the Drosophila melanogaster life cycle.
Insight Outreach, July 2019
For the third year in a row, Arunkumar Ramesh and Alex Leitao from the Jiggins Group have contributed to the Cambridge Insight Outreach programme and welcomed Year 9 - 11 students into the lab.
Target Oxbridge Easter Residential
Rebeca Ridings-Figueroa from the Glover Lab presented an insight into cell biology and, in particular, cancer to students from the Oxbridge programme. The students gained an understanding of how cancer cells develop and spread as well as prevention and different treatments.
Cambridge Science Festival 2019
Members of the Department took place in the Cambridge Science Festival 2019 by opening up the tea room doors to the public on 16 March and having a range of hands-on activities available. >> more information here.
Sciences Taster Day "Solving the Problems of Tomorrow"
On 07 February Chris Illingworth delivered a session titled "What do you get if you cross mathematics, evolution an the global challenge of drug resistance?" as part of the Sciences Taster Day. The event was aimed at Year 12 students and targeted schools with a larger than average proportion of students on Free School Meals. During the course of the day, students attended a number of different workshops provided from a range of different departments.
Key Stage 4 - Discovery Days
Maria Ouvarova from the Russell Lab took part in the Key Stage 4 Discovery Days programme on 18 January 2019. Maria deliverd an interactive talk to a group of GCSE students, engaging them with scientific and philosophical questions which can be investigated experimentally. They looked at X-linkage associated with colourblindness and distinguished this from the monochromatic vision experienced by those with lesions in specific brain areas. This idea was developed to question whether the brain is modular or not. Maria really enjoyed and experience and the co-ordinator quoted "the kids really seemed to enjoy themselves, despite being occasionally endaged by flying Haribo!"
Previous year's outreach and public engagement activities: