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Home lab kits provided to Bioscience students to support blended learning

Academics within our Biosciences department have come up with an ingenious solution to the challenges of blended learning, by designing a ‘Home Lab’ kit that first year Biosciences students can use at home.

    Bioscience home lab kits ready to send out to students
    Bioscience Home Lab kits ready to distribute to NTU first year students.

    The home lab kits contain everything one of our first year Biosciences students needs to carry out their experiments, including digital microscopes, micropipettes and safety glasses. So far, an enormous 400 kits have been handed out to first year students.

    The kits allow students to carry out fully risk assessed experiments at home to supplement their face-to-face classes on campus, and include details of when to conduct the experiments so they best support the topics covered that week.

    Jody Winter, Principal Lecturer in Biosciences, has been leading on the scheme: "The first activities, including microscopy competitions and a growth curve experiment using baker's yeast, are now underway," she says. "In addition to supporting the development of practical skills such as microscopy and pipetting, we hope that participation in these activities will help to foster a sense of belonging to a learning community and enhance student engagement with online learning resources."

    The kits represent an impressive redesign of course delivery within the School of Science and Technology, which has had to evolve to meet the changing demands of the Covid-19 crisis. A large team of academic, technical and administrative staff worked together over the summer to pilot the home experiments, secure the items from suppliers, and put the kits together.

    Dr Michael Loughlin, Learning and Teaching Manager for the School of Science and Technology, says: "We recognise that any reduction in lab time can affect student confidence, so all first year biologists will be able to gain experience at home though activities embedded in the two modules they take in their first term. They will receive resources to allow them to be able to develop their practical skills at home."

    So far, students have been excited and eager to conduct their experiments at home. And some significant successes have already been reported – including a student who has successfully found and captured a video of a tardigrade (water bear) using their digital microscope.

    • Notes for editors

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      NTU was named University of the Year 2019 in the Guardian University Awards. The award was based on performance and improvement in the Guardian University Guide, retention of students from low-participation areas and attainment of BME students. NTU was also the Times Higher Education University of the Year 2017, and The Times and Sunday Times Modern University of the Year 2018. These awards recognise NTU for its high levels of student satisfaction, its quality of teaching, its engagement with employers, and its overall student experience.

      The university has been rated Gold in the Government’s Teaching Excellence Framework – the highest ranking available.

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      The university is passionate about creating opportunities and its extensive outreach programme is designed to enable NTU to be a vehicle for social mobility. NTU is among the UK’s top five recruiters of students from disadvantaged backgrounds and was awarded University of the Year in the UK Social Mobility Awards 2019. A total of 82% of its graduates go on to graduate entry employment or graduate entry education or training within six months of leaving. Student satisfaction is high: NTU achieved an 87% satisfaction score in the 2019 National Student Survey.

      A total of 82% of its graduates go on to graduate entry employment or graduate entry education or training within six months of leaving. Student satisfaction is high: NTU achieved an 87% satisfaction score in the 2019 National Student Survey.

    Published on 17 November 2020
    • Subject area: Sciences including sport sciences
    • Category: Press office; Research; School of Science and Technology