In the Zone

I first came across Biozone at a Science Learning Centre CPD event in Manchester in March this year. I had a very informative chat with Sarah Silvester, the company’s UK representative, and as a result received review copies of three of their Modular Workbook series (Cell Biology & Biochemistry, Anatomy & Physiology and Genes & Inheritance).

These are compact workbooks, printed in black and white, with a comprehensive introductory section on how to make the most of the material contained within. After this each book splits into sections prefaced with a set of learning objectives highlighting key terminology for those topic areas. Each worksheet contains a brief overview of the subject followed by straightforward questions that don’t attempt to wrong-foot the student. Not all of the information needed to answer the questions is included, encouraging students to read around the subject. To help them with this, each section has a bibliography containing links to text books, journals (split into student & teacher suitable lists) and Biozone’s online support material.

Primarily these appear to be designed to be used in class in an organised way, rather than as something a student would pick up off their own bat like more traditional revision guides. This has both positive and negative implications. In terms of negatives, the answers aren’t in the back of the book; a CD-ROM with the answers is available from the company but I’m not sure how students would get hold of it if they purchased from somewhere like Amazon. Although the cost of the individual workbooks is cheap (particularly if you can order in bulk direct from Biozone themselves) in these times of ever decreasing budgets, I can’t see many colleges being able to afford to buy them for each student on their programme. This isn’t such a problem for the courses I teach on as they are foundation year HE ones, and as such I would expect the students to buy these as required reading from their grant/bursary/loan. But for those students on A-level programmes or Access courses (all FE) who will no longer have an EMA allowance, I can see it being more problematical, particularly as there is a strict (and quite understandable) photocopying embargo in place.

Having said that, there are a lot of positives and not only regarding the content. All of the books I’ve read so far start off simply and work towards more complex themes. Even though there is some overlap between the books, care has been taken to alter individual worksheets to ensure that you’re not paying for the same thing over and over again. The content is well pitched for level 3 courses with sufficient extension material to challenge stronger students without terrifying weaker ones. Complex tasks are split into simpler steps that should really support student progression and there are some excellent activities included as well, so it’s not just endless sets of questions. Although some of the books will have limited use at higher levels (other than to serve as a quick refresher for basic concepts), some (such as the Genes & Inheritance book) will continue to be useful well into a degree.

Another positive is the customer service I have received whilst dealing with the company. People are quick to comment on poor experience but often forget to mention good; it shouldn’t be a surprise when you receive it but increasingly it is, and Sarah has always been extremely helpful. She kindly supplied a small test group of my students with books of their own and it soon became apparent how useful the students found them, as “Greenwood et al” started to pop up with increasing frequency in assignment bibliographies. All of the students involved have said that they wished they’d known about them earlier and I fully intend to use them again during the next academic year. Because of the quality of the resource and the excellent care and attention I’ve been given, I’m more than happy to recommend these books to other teachers on bespoke programmes such as ours.

Back to Beamish

Not only were our staff happily snapping away at Beamish but we were accompanied as well by an official photographer, Graham Brown (of Chapman Brown Photography).

Here are a small selection of the photos he took whilst following our students as they carried out their activities:

Here I am (in full kit) with Eileen watching, as I explain about herbal remedies to some students and members of the public . The people in the doorway wanted to join in!


Deep in thought at Pockerley Manor:


Finding out about the chemical processes involved in motoring at the Motor & Cycle Works:


No prizes for guessing what this young gent was all excited about!


What's up there, I wonder?


Research, 19th Century style:


Will he find anything in there?


Looking for signs of life:

Building a better helix

We do have a build-your-own-DNA model in the lab. Sadly, its very old, the instructions have long since gone missing and when I did try to figure it out, most of the pieces didn't seem to fit together. It also looked like some discarded lengths of electrical wiring and broken bits of childrens' necklaces, so I've long been searching for an alternative.

Now I love Molymod and I use it extensively when teaching the foundations of biochemistry (water, glucose, amino acids and condensation reactions) but it can be hard on the fingers. When we were at the Newcastle Makers' Faire earlier this year, we saw the Zometool stand and all of their interesting kits. Sadly, at that time, they weren't easily available in the UK (which was really disappointing as they seemed to have exactly what I was looking for).

I was therefore seriously chuffed to see that there is now a Zometool UK site and that they had the DNA kit. Its pretty simple to put together (although some of the digitally generated images are a little confusing) and the fact sheet is pitched well at an introductory level without feeling dumbed down.

The customer service was good, and even though they said it might take a while, it actually arrived far more quickly than they thought. Postage and packing was a little pricey, but the kit quality is high and its certainly less painful on the fingers than an extended session with Molymod.


In all, the model is approximately 39cm (15") tall and 16cm (6.5") wide.

Even though the UK site doesn't have the full catalogue of kits on it, they are willing to get hold of kits on request, so I will probably be getting a Biochemistry kit to road test. I definitely intend to get the DNA kit for my students (so we can see just how tall a DNA molecule we can build), and fingers crossed the Biochemistry kit will be just as informative and useful.

The Joys of Plasticine

We've been using plasticine here on the Level Zero courses to reinforce learning for a very long time. Its often very popular with our older students who have young families, as they like to go home and make the models again with their children. Normally, we make models of animal and plant cell ultrastructure and cell membranes.

When Mike, our technician, was at the Metro Centre last weekend he saw that the people from the Centre for Life were doing something similar but with a bit of a twist - they were making their cell models in Petri dishes so that the children could take them home! That sounded like a great idea, so we thought that we'd give it a try too...




















These models were made by two of our Biomedical Sciences students











And here you can see our Foundation Pharmacy students happily beavering away on their models.

Everyone had a great deal of fun and the fact they could take the models home was a big hit. Now all we need to do is buy some more plasticine ready for making cell membranes next week!

Science in Sedgefield

On Wednesday 22nd September, our Foundation Pharmaceutical Sciences students went down to NetPark in Sedgefield. This was their Induction Week day out, kindly organised by Lorraine Coghill and Qingrui Meng from Durham University's Outreach Office.


After a brief introduction, Qinrui got the ball rolling by asking the students to organsie themselves by birthday without being allowed to say a word. There was an awful lot of gesturing going on, but they sorted themselves out in the end (with only three people in the wrong place)! The students were then split into two groups and asked to build the highest free standing tower possible using paper, sellotape & straws. It did get rather competitive...




After attempting to work out what was in a series of sealed tins, the students had an experiment with a variety of materials to try and work out what they did.


The final activity was a Dragon's Den style challenge: design an innovative item and sell it to a panel of experts. One of our judges was Paul Clark from the Centre for Advanced Instrumentation at NetPark, whose company made the amazing mirror in the picture at the top of this post. In small groups, the students got to form a small "company", each with their own role, design and cost an item and then develop a presentation.


We had a new type of self-tan, an elevating/extending wheelchair, and several variations on electronic paper/computer tablets. The eventual winner was the I-Scan, a hand-held eye scanning device for security & medical uses.


NetPark is a fabulous venue and the students had the opportunity to interact with their new course-mates in a very relaxed environment. They also commented on how they not only got to practice existing skills, but develop new ones that, although not directly linked to their course of study, were transferrable and essential for their chosen career. All in all, another successful day out!

A Grand Day Out

On Monday 20th September, our Level Zero Biomedical & Psychology students went to Beamish Museum. It was their first day at the College and the first day of Induction Week, so we were starting things off with a bit of a bang. Although, can you imagine being confronted with this on your first day?

As we mentioned in an earlier post, one activity was a tour of the stores at Beamish and a talk on conservation. This was a very popular activity; the students were fascinated by both the size of the stores and the sheer range of items that the Museum has in its archive. The second activity was identifying 19th century medical instruments using period catalogues. Apparently, the instruments weren't always gruesome enough, so we'll have to work on that in future! (We actually left some of the really icky ones in storage; that'll teach us). Both of these activities took place at the Resource Centre.


Our third activity was looking for applications of chemistry in the Town. Many people don't realise just how important chemistry is to every day life, so this activity was designed to show just how much of an impact it has. Needless to say, the tea shop and the sweet shop were both very popular destinations...

Our final activity was up at Pockerley Manor. Being a Monday, it meant we didn't get any lovely foody treats (Monday is calligraphy day not biscuit day, very sadly), but the sun was shining as our students tried to come up with herbal remedies to treat a series of common 19th century ailments. The curly coated pigs provided an added attraction when the students had finished being early pharmacists.


All in all, we had a fantastic day - the sun shone, the students had a chance to get to know each other and a chance to see behind the scenes at a very important local resource. Fingers crossed they'll go back in the near future to explore further and take their friends and family along too.


Last of all, we'd like to say a big thanks to Beamish Museum and their staff for being so friendly and helpful, and to Eileen Atkins at STEAM for helping us to organise the event.

Only a few more days...

... until we take our Level Zero Biomedical Scientists & Psychologists to Beamish for the first day of their Induction Week. The weather forecast is looking mostly hopeful, so fingers crossed it stays dry.

Our design department have done a fantastic cover for the staff booklets (see over on the right hand side). There are four different sorts: one for the College staff that have everything in and three different ones for Beamish's staff at the three locations, so they have the information to hand if our students ask any unexpected or tricky questions.

In the Resource Centre, our students will be attempting to identify a series of gruesome medical instruments from the 19th Century as well as being introduced to the museum's work in preservation & conservation. In Beamish Town, they will be looking for applications of chemistry in every day life and at Pockerley Manor they will be looking into home remedies and why they're not always a good thing.

Here's keeping our fingers crossed that the sun shines!