Seminars

Overall I have enjoyed the seminars much more than I thought I would. I have attended a diverse range of topics some of which I thought I would have no interested in but actually found really interesting and learnt a lot from.

The seminars have help to give me extra information on a wide range of areas within biology from current research topics to some job ideas which are available with a biology based degree. The talk which I attended which inspired me the most was from Craig Shuttleworth about red squirrel conservation on Anglesey, this is an area which I was already interested in and completed my dissertation on however the talk identified new areas of research which I had not thought of before and is a topic I would definitely like to take further either from future employment or postgraduate study when I have the funding available. I am now in contact with Craig Shuttleworth and may be able to use this to help in my future career.

The rest of the seminars have really helped to boost my knowledge on topics I previously knew little about and have help me to have a better overall knowledge of biological issues which may also help to make me a better candidate for any job which I may apply for.

April Blog – Chat Moss Project

This was a talk by Elspeth Ingleby from The Wildlife Trust on the Chat Moss Project.

This is to do with lowland raised bogs within the Manchester area. These are formed in areas of impermeable ground where plants cannot break down so fen peat forms, sphagnum mosses also establish and these build up to form a dome of peat.

There has been a major reduction of lowland bogs in this area in the past. In 1845 50% of the original Chat Moss was lost mainly due to agricultural land and pressure from building new railways.  The peat that was removed was often used as horse bedding and then placed back on the land once manure had been added, this meant nutrients was added to the area allowing other plants to grow meaning the peat could no longer be produced and can destroy bog land for thousands of years.
The reduction continued to occur and in the next 50 years a further 50% of the land was lost to peat extraction.
Due to the hard work of the Chat Moss Project there is now 300 hectares of bog within the area and the situation is continually improving. However there is clearly reduction compared to the amount of bog land in the area in the past.

 

Lowland peat areas are important for many reasons:

-Provide wild space for urban people living nearby
-Carbon Storage
– Rewetted bogs emit methane
-Buffer in droughts and floods
-Rare and Unique plants and animals

The future for the Chat Moss project has a potential to make a real difference and only recently they have succeeded in having the licence removed from a nearby extraction site and are in the process of buying the land for renovation. However the talk did lead me to wondering if the future would ever be suitable as these areas are going to require a large amount of time and money to restore, and it is likely that if finances were to ever run out the land would be immediately be brought and used for agricultural land or peat extraction to produce profit as there is no finance gain from the peat restoration project.

Only time will tell what is in store for the future of these areas, but for the sake of the conservation and environmental reasons I hope that the Chat Moss project is effective at restoring and maintaining as much lowland peat in the area as possible.

Websites with extra information on Chat moss:
http://www.lancashirelife.co.uk/out-about/wildlife/chat_moss_home_to_an_enormous_variety_of_wildlife_between_manchester_and_liverpool_1_2373686
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Chat-Moss-Project/329943177133245

 

Business Plan Essay

For this assignment we had to write a 1500 word essay explain what each section of the business plan included and how knowing how to write this would help with our future career.

I found this assignment a bit confusing to get my head around at first but once I started writing it I had plenty to say about each section. The assignment did help to get me thinking a lot about how skills from knowing how to write a business plan could help in many different aspects of a career from helping to sell yourself to get a job and to see potential improvements within your company to help boost you further within you career.

This assignment also strengthened my understanding of what is required within each section of a business plan which I had also learnt from lectures and the dragons den exercise.

I do however feel this assignment would have been more helpful for my future career if we actually had to write a business plan as this would give us an even more in depth understanding of what is required for a business plan. 

However this assignment did help me in my future career in some ways as it helped me to identify what skills I have learnt or built upon from knowing how to write a business plan which can then use and apply within many different aspects of my future career.

March Comments

Snakebite in India – Gerry Martin, 25th March, 2014

http://bsue2d.wordpress.com/2014/03/31/african-bush-meat-dont-ban-it-fix-it/comment-page-1/#comment-30

 

Dragons Den assessment

The Dragons Den assessment day involved producing a business plan either for Treborth Botanic Gardens or the museum within the university. The task was completed within groups taking each section of a business plan separately and deciding what would need to be included within our business for each section. We were also required to produce an advertisement for our business. At the end of the session each group presented their business plan to the rest of the groups and showed their advert.
I did enjoy this day, and feel it helped to improve upon my team building skills due to having to work within a group which was randomly selected. However I do not feel that this assessment would help me produce a viable business plan in the future as it was much too vague with limited time to include enough detail within each section of the business plan. However it did help to give me a better understanding of all the factors which need to be considered when setting up a business. I enjoyed producing the advertisement, however I do not feel it added any academic value to the day.
Overall the day was enjoyable and did give me a better understanding of the different sections within a business plan, and our group won the best business plan from the student vote which I was really pleased about.

February Comments

Landscape scale Grey squirrel control: Lessons from the UK. By Craig Shuttleworth

Working together: The Pontbren Project

February Blog- Squirrel Conservation

This talked by Craig Shuttleworth addressed a major reoccurring argument within conservation – whether the red squirrel is worth saving?

A recent survey showed that:

69% of people feel they are and want the greys culled for their conservation!

The talk started by showing just how much damage grey squirrels can do and a shocking picture was shown of a house roof on fire after greys had chewed through the wiring! Another negative effect of greys that I didn’t realise is that they can cause a 15% reduction in song birds in areas where they are present.

There are 2 main ways that greys can reduce red squirrel:
1) Reducing the recruitment of reds
2) Spreading squirrel pox virus – with 15x faster decline in areas where the virus is present.

The main topic of the talk was the success of the reintroduction programme of reds on Anglesey. The greys in the area were eradicated as much as possible and red squirrels with a broad genetic base were introduced.

 

 

After many set-backs such as a captive population crash from a new disease known as adenovirus the programme has been a major success with an increasing red squirrel population each year.

I feel this project has shown that red squirrel conservation is possible and worthwhile. It is widely accepted that red squirrels will never be present across the whole of the UK again, but projects like this are a vital way of keeping red squirrels still present within their homeland.

This project still has a long way to go and there are future plans to expand the squirrel population further onto the mainland.
Other issues need to be overcome as well such as reds coming back to the mainland mixing with greys and taking the squirrel pox virus back. However I feel this is an excellent example of a successful reintroduction programme!

I really enjoyed this talk and it links well with my dissertation, and would love a future career within squirrel conservation.

CV

I feel that the CV assignment within this module really did help me to improve my CV and have a better understanding of what employers are looking within one. Although I already had a basic CV the lectures helped to give me more ideas on what to include within it such as a skills section which I had never considered before.

It also outlined the importance of adjusting your CV for each job you apply for and using the job description given to help identify ideas and skills to include within it. Since the assignment I feel that my CV has dramatically improved by using all the advice I was given within the lecture series and this will aid me when applying for jobs in the future.

Within the assignment we were also required to find a job to write the CV for, this made me really start to think about the type of job that I would like to do once I have finished university and gave me a head start in the search process by identifying suitable websites to look on for when a job is required.

A cover letter was also required as part of the assignment which is something I had never really understood in the past and not known what to include within it. However since the lecture series I am now confident that I could write a suitable cover letter for any future job I may apply for including all the necessary information.

 

December Comments

http://edwardhjones.wordpress.com/2013/12/31/capitalism-or-conservation-the-running-of-a-modern-zoo/comment-page-1/#comment-10

http://bsue0c.wordpress.com/2014/01/02/a-talk-about-chester-zoo/comment-page-1/#comment-7

Career Cafe

Career Cafe

On the 5^th of December a career cafe was held within Bangor University in which 5 graduates from the university came to talk about what they have achieved since leaving university.

Ross Piper – The ‘celebrity’ of the group, as he is a zoologist, author and presenter and has only recently returned from Burma after recording a series for the BBC.
After graduating from Bangor he went on to do a PhD at Leeds University on insect ecology as this is something he is particularly interested in. His advice was to take every opportunity that comes along and work as hard as you can at it.
I found this talk very inspiring and motivated me to work hard towards my career as he has shown that the hard work will pay off. I also found the talk reassuring as Ross mentioned that he was unsure of what he wanted to do next, which is an issue I am currently facing so it was reassuring to know that someone that far into their career and as successful as him also wasn’t completely sure of his next career move.

Cherry Shacklady – Head of Biology at Friars School.
Cherry attended Bangor University as a mature student with no A–levels. She then went on to become a zoo keeper in South Wales for 10 years.  As she enjoyed the educational side of her job she completed a PGCE in Biology and became a teacher, she worked her way up in the school and is now head of her department.
I found this talk interesting as I have considered teaching as a career and although I have decided it is not for me at the moment the talk reassured me that it is something which I could go into at a later date after experiencing other jobs.

Nia Jones – Marine Conservation Officer for the North Wales Wildlife Trust.
Completed her undergraduate degree in Zoology with Marine Biology and then a masters in ecology both at Bangor University. She also completed a large amount of volunteer work during her masters.
This talk confirmed the fact that I do not want a job in Wales as Nia emphasised the importance of being able to speak Welsh to get a job within Wales. However the talk did illustrate to me the importance of volunteer work in getting a job and motivated me to look for suitable volunteer work to do over the Easter holidays.

Naomi Willis – Management technician at Welsh Water
Naomi completed a degree in Chemistry and then a PhD in Biology. After this she was still unsure of what job she wanted to do so done a masters in Chemistry and a PhD in drinking water quality in reservoirs. This then lead on to her getting a job at Welsh water.
Within this talk Naomi emphasised the importance of a degree and the transferable skills it gives you to use within the work place even when your career and degree are not directly linked.

Imogen German – Teaching Assistant at Bangor University
Completed a degree in Biology, and then worked in a telemarketing job to be able to fund volunteering on research projects. She then completed her masters at Aberdeen, and then had several jobs for example working as a research assistant.
This talk showed me that you can do many different jobs to get a taste of different things and decide what you want to do. It also showed that it is acceptable and sometimes necessary to take a non degree level job while either finding a suitable job or to find funding for further education.

All 5 of the talks gave me something to think about and learn thing from. Although I don’t plan to do the same kind of job as any of these people I really enjoyed the talks and found them useful to help plan my own career.