Life Sciences EBL Fellows
Richard Prince
EBL Fellow: Richard Prince
Faculty/School: Life Sciences
Appointment:Honorary
e: richard.prince@manchester.ac.uk
t: 55469
staff profile,
research
Richard Prince joined the University of Manchester as a lecturer in 1998, after post-doctoral fellowships at Duke University and the Mayo Clinic.
Richard is currently programme director for degrees in pharmacology and pharmacology + physiology and has been very active in introducing Enquiry-Based Learning into the teaching of these disciplines via the medium of problem-based learning.
Since 2000, Richard has been involved in the revision of the British Pharmacological Society’s Computer Aided Learning “Pharma-CAL-ogy” packages and has authored a PBL teaching and learning resource pack to support the Pharma-CAL-ogy material. Richard’s research focuses on the CNS actions of nicotine and related drugs.
Carol Wakeford
EBL Fellow: Dr Carol Wakeford
Faculty/School: Life Sciences
Appointment:Honorary
e: carol.wakeford@manchester.ac.uk
t: 51518
staff profile
Carol Wakeford is Senior Teaching Fellow, having joined the Faculty of Life Sciences in 2001 from the University of Salford, where she was a Lecturer in Biochemistry. She did her first degree at UCL and then worked for Unilever Research before returning to academia to undertake research in protein chemistry at Imperial College, and in radiation chemistry at the University of Salford. She has a PGCE, and is an accredited member of the Higher Education Academy. Her main responsibilities in FLS include the coordination and delivery of the training course for final year e-learning project students, and she is project leader for the Faculty CEEBL project 'Data-drive EBL: embedding research in Life Sciences practicals'. Her current interests are in e-learning, teaching maths to bioscience students, and pedagogy. She is particularly interested in problem solving and creativity in the biosciences.
Tristan Pocock
EBL Fellow: Dr Tristan Pocock
Faculty/School: Life Sciences
Appointment:Honorary
e: Tristan.Pocock@manchester.ac.uk
t: 55093
staff profile, research
Tristan Pocock returned to the University in 2004 as a Teaching Fellow, having completed his PhD in the School of Biological Sciences in 1998, worked as a British Heart Foundation-funded post-doc in Bristol, and then taught Biology in a rural secondary school in Zambia (through Voluntary Services Overseas, VSO).
Since 2004, he has completed a PGCE, including a research project which involved developing and evaluating the peer assessment of contribution to a team-based exercise. His main responsibilities in FLS include: coordination of the 2nd Year MBChB Student-Selected Component (SSC); coordinating and delivering field courses; teaching pharmacology and physiology to Life Sciences, medical, nursing and Pharmacy students; and facilitating PBL and EBL sessions.
He has worked with Carol Wakeford to enhance the delivery of EBL in FLS, including developing a video-based tutorial linking research to teaching. He is also interested in integrating sustainable development issues into bioscience education.
Student Intern 2009/10:
Currently, there are no Student Interns from the Faculty of Life Sciences.
If you are interested in working with the CEEBL Student Interns, please contact Louise Goldring: louise.goldring@manchester.ac.uk; 66445.
» Previous Student Interns for Life Sciences
Major CEEBL project in Life Sciences
Data-driven EBL: embedding research in Life Sciences practicals
Project Leaders: Dr Carol Wakeford, Dr Tristan Pocock
A central tenet of the Faculty of Life Sciences (FLS) teaching philosophy is that EBL should eventually permeate through all levels of all degree programmes. We aspire to this goal because we are a research-driven faculty and we believe EBL to be the best medium for delivering research-informed teaching and for equipping students with a research-skill base.
Preliminary analysis reveals that at present, EBL makes a significant impact in our level one lecture and tutorial units but has played much less of a role in second and final level courses. All degree programmes within FLS have a very similar first year which means that the Faculty only offers a limited range of level one units. Further, level one students all follow essentially the same tutorial programme. This uniformity has meant that we have been able to introduce EBL throughout our level one lecture and tutorial units. However, the diversity of our courses increases dramatically in subsequent years of our degree programmes and wholesale implementation of EBL in level two and three units is unfeasible due to manpower limitations.
To increase the exposure of our students to EBL, the project will have four main strands:
- Conduct an audit of current EBL activities within the Faculty. This will allow us to disseminate examples of good practice and identify areas of weakness.
- Generate EBL material for level two Research Skills Modules (RSMs) and Laboratory Skills Modules (LSMs). RSMs and LSMs are second level lab’ practical units that are compulsory for all students within FLS and comprise both programme specific and cross-programme practical classes. By targeting the development of EBL in these units we will provide all second level students with a rich, EBL enhanced learning experience. We will develop EBL exercises that involve the manipulation and interpretation of datasets that expand on the concepts covered in laboratory classes. Exercises will be largely group-based and may be formally assessed as part of practical unit course-work.
- Develop an EBL-centred final year tutorial programme. Final year tutorials for FLS programmes are aimed at helping students to tackle problems and debate topics that require them to integrate information from the diverse range of units taken during their programme. Many programmes already incorporate forms of EBL into their final year tutorials and we will aim to disseminate, and capitalise on, those existing exercises that represent forms of best practice. Examples include: group-based problem solving exercises; student-led debates on controversial topics e.g. animal experimentation, human cloning; journal club presentations.
- Continue ad-hoc development of EBL activities associated with level 2 and 3 lecture units. As part of the audit of EBL activity we will identify existing good practice in EBL with FLS lecture units and encourage staff (via workshops, bulletins) to develop similar material
Anticipated outcomes/benefits
- All students in FLS will experience EBL, in all years, of every programme.
- Because all programmes will be involved in EBL, the awareness of EBL amongst FLS teaching staff will increase
- Via the medium of EBL, students will be better equipped to understand and communicate research level material
- We will accumulate a significant library of material, illustrating and expanding on concepts normally taught via the medium of laboratory practicals. This will be a useful starting point for the development of on- and off-campus distance learning material. A further application of this material will be in “pre-screening” of overseas master’s degree applicants to assess their abilities prior to acceptance on a Manchester course.
This project will increase the exposure of all level two and three FLS students to EBL (a total of 450 at each level). Further, FLS undertakes a significant amount of service teaching for Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences which will benefit indirectly from the work outlined here. In particular, we hope that our teaching of pharmacology and physiology to pharmacy students (circ. 250 level 2 and 3 students) will be strongly influenced by the material developed during our Faculty project. At the graduate level, we anticipate that the techniques and approaches developed during this project may also filter into our research graduate training programme and our taught masters’ programmes.
Funding
| 2005/06 | £10,200 |
| 2006/07 | £29,700 |
| 2007/08 | £20,100 |
| Total | £60,000 |
