Uclan Biology

A few more official Lancashire Science festival photos of Kate and Imogen with their keen young workshop participants

Late but not forgotten! We wanted to share a story of two hardworking undergraduate students who went the extra mile and developed and delivered a workshop for the Lancashire Science festival at the end of June. They managed to juggle three days at the festival with their work and family commitments.
Thank you Kate and Imogen.
If you missed their cycles of life workshop this year then look out for it in 2020 as to quote Kate ' It was a really good experience and I think we both thoroughly enjoyed it 😊 we were already discussing thing we could do for next years festival between us.'

If you want to listen to Barbara's interview with John Gillmore on BBC Radio Lancashire live from Tatton Park on Thursday 18th July go to https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07fg67l
Fast forward into 2 hrs 21 minutes and 34 seconds
and hear her talk about bugs at RHS Tatton and new courses at the School of Forensic and Applied Sciences at UCLAN🐜🦋🦗🕷

UCLan have been out representing the unviveristy at Tatton Park this week. Teaching people about the cycles of life and educating the children about soil organisms. Barbara tigar has given a talk about the secret life beneath your feet and been interviewed on BBC lancashire... check that out for yourself! 😊 We've brought along some UV scorpions, tagged worms, bug keyrings and many more as well as having a beautiful view of the school gardens and flower shows 🌹🌻🌼
Drop in and see us if you are around or coming to Tatton park, we look forward to seeing you. #RHS #Forensics

Images from UCLan Biology Trip to the Isle of Rum - May 2019

Biology Fieldwork on the Isle of Rum: A group of 6 Biology students have just returned from a 10 day visit to Rum, in the Inner Hebrides, Scotland. Time was spent learning of the important species (including white tailed eagle, golden eagle, Manx shearwater, red deer, red-throated diver), habitats (with numerous conservation designations) and management of this National Nature Reserve. Topics such as deer management, afforestation, visitor management and monitoring were explo...red, We also visited a new salmon fish farm close to the island. The trip included an ascent to the top of Hallival - giving views of neighbouring islands, some hands-on work in a "Lazybed" restoraton project and ended with an extended (3 day) project. Groups looked specifically at the population dynamics and behaviour of feral goats, shearwater nesting behaviours and otter distribution.Each project yielded information which will be of value to Scottish Natural Heritage, managers of the NNR. We aim to return to this "outdoor laboratory" next year to continue such projects and become involved with more. UCLan has a long relationship with Rum and staff have been taking trips there for more than 30 years. We are also actively involved with soil ecological research on the island. (See photos section for album)
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Images from UCLan Biology Trip to the Isle of Rum - May 2019

The Royal Society for Biology are offering free "ecology for all days" in the North West region, including interesting activities in the and on the Fylde peninsula.
So why not get involved in some ecological field near Preston starting on June 4th 2019 🦋🌿🐚🐟🦀🐌🦆🐜
... https://www.rsb.org.uk/regional-activ…/ england/north-western
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Breaking news! the 2018-19 UCLAN PASS awards have been released. One of the Six Outstanding Achievement Awards went to a second year Biologist Tasfia (just back from the Portugal field course so she was not at the awards ceremony) Outstanding Achievement Awards - Winner: Biology • Demonstrated a consistently high core performance • Showed commitment to the team • Always smiling and trying their best... • Supportive but assertive • Adapted ideas to fit the needs of the Attendees • Helped students revise outside of PASS sessions • Always gives 100% Tasfia will be working as a PASS leader again next year, which is great news for our 1st years who will start in September
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Last day on our field course at CERES in Arrifana, with the morning spent on project work, then final touches to the e-field notebook in the afternoon. Then a great evening out to mark our final meal together. We were joined by Axel and Astrid at Arte Bianca. Everyone loved the delicious meal, the pizzas were amazing!

On the penultimate night of our field course we were lucky enough to watch a performance of Lavra o mar a group who perform acrobatics. The event was in Arrifana harbour and sevel of the group took part in the audience participation, special mention to Tasfia, Nick and Jay. Well done 😀

Today all the students have been working hard collecting data for their research projects. This is the more serious part of the field course as it is linked to an assessment. So it allowed time for tutors to do some beach combing and personal observations at Praia do Monte Clerigo. Along with cuttlefish bones there were some sail by the wind or Velella hydrozoans washed up along the strand line, also evidence of previous Velella from the remains of their sails. In addition, the thick sea mist brought out a variety of land snails seen eating sea daffodil along the shore.

On 2nd May we visited Sagres and met Ana and other staff from Mar Ilimitado who conduct research on cetacean populations and encourage ecotourism related to these fascinating animals. The group split into two and the first boat out were lucky enough to see a pod of over 100 common dolphins, who allowed everyone to marvel at the wonderful spectacle of put on by these graceful animals. Later on the same trip they also saw a smaller pod of bottle-nosed dolphins. The day coincide...d with Barbara's birthday, and seeing this natural "show" was a lovely present, as was the hand-made card and kind comments and birthday wishes from the students and Thanos.
For information on Mar Ilimitado see - https://marilimitado.com/
Today the students have designed their research projects, and are conducting pilot data collection so they can finalise their methodology before collecting their data tomorrow and Sunday.
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Today our biology students have been surveying and studying sand dune zonation. Another full day if field work with Astrid and Axel from CERES. The dunes host an amazing variety of xerphytes, psamophiles and halophytes.

Another busy, interesting and intellectually and physical day working with Axel and the CERES project. This time surveying and estuary using kayaks.

Becoming an independent University student can be daunting at times. Please feel free to ask any questions and I will get back to you the best I can to help with any concerns.☺️

First day of the CERES field trip at Aljezur Portugal. Great introduction by Axel of some of the habitats in the Western Algarve.