Student blogs

When writing a to-do list is on your to-do list…

25 November 2016

“Are you writing a blogpost?”

“Well, yes, I have nothing else to… Umm, I have loads of other things to do, but nothing which could be done at 1am on a Sunday night…”

– Actual conversation by actual people on an actual Sunday night. Actually.

So what happened since I last posted? Hmmm nothing really… Just second year started, I signed up to way too many things, my to-do list is so long that it doesn’t fit above my desk, my diet is something like McDonalds-Subway-Dominos-BurgerKing on an infinite loop, I don’t remember the last time I had 3 proper meals in a day, my sleeping cycle is starting to vaguely resemble that of a computing student, so yeah, nothing really… But let’s start from the beginning.

The pitfalls of pitfall traps

Victoria Burton

Science and Solutions for a Changing Planet Doctoral Training Programme (PhD)

24 November 2016

For the last couple of months I have been doing fieldwork in the New Forest – a National Park in my home county of Hampshire. The New Forest was previously sampled by the Natural History Museum Soil Biodiversity Group during the New Forest Qualitative Inventory in 2010 and I have been revisiting some of the sites and also new ones. The aim of my sampling is to collect soil and leaf litter invertebrates, and soil cores for microbial analysis in six different land uses which correspond to those used in the PREDICTS project: mature secondary vegetation, immature secondary vegetation (heathland), plantation forest, grassland, cropland and urban areas.

Going into the Blue…

Victoria Burton

Science and Solutions for a Changing Planet Doctoral Training Programme (PhD)

4 November 2016

Last week I was fortunate to attend the NERC Into the Blue public engagement event in Manchester with the British Ecological Society.

I AM HALFWAY THERE!

Mala Mawkin (former blog contributor)

MBBS Medicine

25 October 2016

ICSM
Year 4

Twitter: @malamawks | Instagram: @malamawkin

Wahoo I am halfway through medical school, officially! We had our ICSM Class of 2019 Halfway Dinner on my birthday (15th October if you need to put in diary for next year).

It was such a lovely evening, we had the whole year group come down to a hotel in London. Everyone looked so good in black tie, and the venue was so well decorated! It was all organised by a committee of people in our year group, and I can’t believe what they managed to pull off.

Evening started off with a drinks reception. It was so bizarre seeing the whole year together in black tie… like a REALLY formal lecture.

Throwback Thursday – Eek I’m a PhD student! (October 2014)

Victoria Burton

Science and Solutions for a Changing Planet Doctoral Training Programme (PhD)

13 October 2016

This final #throwbackthursday looks back to the interview and application process for my PhD, I can hardly believe that is was two years ago and I am now a third year! #gulp

Science Uncovered 2016

Victoria Burton

Science and Solutions for a Changing Planet Doctoral Training Programme (PhD)

10 October 2016

Science Uncovered is part of European Researchers’ Night, and is a free annual festival of science held at various institutions across the UK giving the public the opportunity to discover rare items from the Museum collections, meet experts and take part in interactive science stations, debates and behind-the-scenes tours.

What to Expect: Clinical Years

Lorna Trenchard (former blog contributor)

MBBS Medicine

6 October 2016

What firm are you on? How’s placement? Where are you at? The medics I know keep asking all these questions and leaving the house really early dressed smartly, but what actually are clinical attachments?

Year 3 is clinical, with attachments (‘firms’) in hospitals across West London. They are called ‘firms’ from back in the old days when you would be with the same medical team for a while and became like a little family. Firm means the group you are with, and the name seems to have stuck (we like using technical terms to confuse non-medics).

Hospital placements at Imperial covered a lot wider area than I expected- from Paddington (St.

What to Expect: Medicine Course

Lorna Trenchard (former blog contributor)

MBBS Medicine

1 October 2016

Course Structure

So, final year, what even is that? And how did I get there?

At Imperial Medicine (MBBS/BSc) is a 6 year course:

Years 1&2 are pre-clinical years, learning how the body works and all the science behind diseases. Lectures run 9-5pm pretty much every day, with practicals, PBL, Communication sessions and anatomy mixed in. Practicals varied from looking down a microscope at your own blood, to drinking 2 cans of energy drink and measuring your observations whilst doing 10 minutes on an exercise bike! PBL (problem based learning) sessions were group sessions tackling clinical presentations (e.g. a man with shortness of breath just returned from LA on a long-haul flight) and teaching each other relevant information.