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A virtual work experience event for GCSE and A level students interested in Neuroscience provided by Queen Square Brain Bank on 20th July 2020.
At QSBB we usually hold work experience for both GCSE and A level students in the summer of each year. This would normally involve shadowing researchers around the lab learning a number of different scientific techniques. However, due to the pandemic, we could not provide the same experience. This left the students of this year with no way of gaining experience in a year where their education had also been affected.
Rather than ignoring this need, we decided to hold a virtual work experience event instead this year. We had over 300 attendees from all around the country and even some international students. This meant that we reached a far wider network than we would have, extending possibilities for many students.
听We ran the event for half a day that was split into four different sessions: an introduction to the brain bank (Dr Christina Toomey, Prof Tom Warner, Ms Lynn Haddon); Diagnostics at the brain bank (Dr Zane Jaunmuktane); Scientific research techniques (Dr Rina Bandopadhyay, Mr Alexander Bampton); and a Career session (Ms Phoebe Walsh, Dr Ariana Gatt, Dr Teisha Bradshaw and Dr Patrick Cullinane). After each session we held a Q&A session to give the students a chance to ask the researchers questions. The event involved a whole range of staff from PhD student to Director.
We had students attend from all socio-economic backgrounds and a diverse number of races. 16% of attendees were on free school meals or maintenance grants and 26% of students were the first generation in their family to want to attend university. 99% of attendees believed the event helped them towards achieving their goals with 50% very satisfied with the event and a further 46% satisfied. 0% were dissatisfied with the event. 99% of students would recommend a similar event to their peers.
We also received some lovely comments from the students.
- 鈥淚 particularly enjoyed the use of various speakers from different realms/areas, as it increased the breadth of learning and showed different perspectives.鈥�
- 鈥淚 enjoyed learning about the team鈥檚 personal experiences, where they went into detail about what lead them to their current jobs, the pros and cons to working within science and what the average daily life of a postdoc includes. I found this very useful, as I learnt that you can take many different paths to get to the same destination鈥�
- 鈥淚t was incredibly interesting and gave me good insight into how a brain bank works and the various techniques adopted by scientists in the lab to study the brain.鈥�
- 鈥淭he QSBB event was fantastic and I just wanted to thank you for the amazing opportunity to be a part of this event.鈥�
- 鈥淭hank you so much for organising such an amazing event, it has always been my dream to work in neurology field and this was a great opportunity and I have learned a lot!鈥�
