Kirsty the Scientist

A few years ago, the idea of interactive virtual reality (VR) would have seemed futuristic and out of reach.  But now, all the virtual reality hopes and ideas that have been in all the films for years, are starting to seem much more possible and closer to reality.  Photo courtesy of: http://cyberschoolgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/vr.jpg But could virtual reality technology be used to revolutionise education, especially in the sciences?  Now I don't know about you, but I think the best way to get kids and young people engaged in science is to encourage them to get stuck in and investigate themselves. (As a bonus, creating their own questions and working out how to answer them is a very valuable skill in science anyway!)  Could virtual reality be a perfect way to allow children to have an immersive and experimental experience with science, without any health and safety concerns/fears!? Young people don't all have access and chance to experienc...

Forget everything I've said about being busy so far - today was the most hectic and experiment-filled day I've had yet!  There was a lot to get done today - finishing off longer experiments from last week, plating out cells ready for this week's experiments, data analysis of a couple of different experiments - all on top of a Masters student, who is still shadowing me, following my every move and asking questions about each step. All good multi-tasking practice, and reminding me why each step is important, but I had to be on the ball at all times! 

This morning was the first day the new MRes students joined our research team - one of which will be directly following and continuing on the findings of my project - leaving me the best person to show him around and teach him the ropes!  Teaching someone else is definitely a very effective test in finding out what you know yourself, especially when some of the work has been new to me too! Luckily, I felt pretty confident in lots of the techniques I've been working on and I enjoyed the chance to teach and discuss my project with someone with a little bit less experience than me (said in the nicest way possible!). It also showed me ho much I have learnt in such a short space of time!