did u ever teach science to anyone? – MRC Festival Zone 2019

Question: did u ever teach science to anyone?
- Keywords:
  teaching
Asked by anon-220162 on 5 Jun 2019.
- Marianne King answered on 5 Jun 2019:
  
  I’ve never taught science as a teacher but I have run a few lab practical sessions during my time at university. Hopefully they learned something but you’d have to ask them that. 🙂
- Nina Rzechorzek answered on 5 Jun 2019:
  
  Yes, I’ve supervised veterinary undergraduates at University (subjects such as physiology, neurology, and reproductive biology), been a research supervisor for 3 students doing their research projects for the vet course (all neurology-related), done lots of public engagement at events and online mainly based on stem cells and the brain.
- Kate Timms answered on 5 Jun 2019:
  
  I do! I teach undergraduate science students (that’s the first degree you do at university), medical students, dental students, masters level students and PhD students! I love teaching, both by giving workshops/lectures and by teaching one-on-one. With one-on-one teaching, I have a student for 6 months, a year or even longer. In that time, I teach them about research and how to do the experiments we do in our lab. They do their own research project which I help with and supervise, helping them become a scientist. It’s one of the best parts of my job!
- David Wilson answered on 5 Jun 2019:
  
  Yes, we have undergraduate students that come and do short projects in our lab. I usually teach them about the work we do, how the science their learning fits in with what is currently known and how to use some of the specialist equipment we have and do the experiments they’re going to use in their project.
  
  I’ve find it really satisfying trying to explain and teach science, everyone learns differently so sometimes you have to explain things in different ways to help someone understand it.
- Shobhana Nagraj answered on 5 Jun 2019:
  
  Yes! I have spent a lot of my working life teaching science to medical students and newly qualified doctors. I currently teach students who study global health and surgery, and I also teach research methods. I love teaching – I really enjoy interacting with students and the best bit is I also learn loads by teaching others!
- James Streetley answered on 5 Jun 2019:
  
  Not as a proper teacher or lecturer, but part of working in science at a university is providing supervision and training to new students or other scientists who don’t have the same skills as you. So I’ve taught people how to use equipment or carry out an experiment that they haven’t done before. I also got to travel down to London to help demonstrate on a training course for microscopy.
- Ross Hill answered on 5 Jun 2019:
  
  YES!
  
  Teaching is a great way of learning more. In order to teach someone confidently you need to learn it yourself to a higher level! It’s also a wonderful way to engage young scientists.
  
  I often volunteer in school outreach programmes around the county to encourage school children to consider careers in science!
- Rebecca Moon answered on 5 Jun 2019:
  
  I am teaching science all the time, but not as a science teacher in a school! I often teach medical students as they come to see us work in the hospital and learn how to do the job.
  
  Scientists also like to teach each other. We have massive gatherings called conferences, sometimes in countries abroad and other times more locally. Scientist will do a presentation on their research to the others there. It can be a bit daunting but it’s a great opportunity to get ideas about future research too.
  
  At my university we also have a “meet the scientist” program. It’s a bit like this but students come from local schools to meet us and we teach them about our research. It’s always fun as they come up with loads of questions that I’ve never really thought about.
  
  Most importantly my job involves lots of educating of patients as its really important that they understand their own disease and how to manage it. Often you forget that you are teaching, but that is a lot of what doctors do.
  
  I dont think I could be a school teacher though!
- Rachel Hardy answered on 5 Jun 2019:
  
  I have not taught science properly to anyone in a lesson or anything like that. However, I used to run tutor sessions for 1st year students while I was studying at University (I was in my second year at the time). This involved me planning weekly activities to support them with what they had learnt in lectures, and help them with essay writing. The aim of these sessions were to provide a fun environment for the students to learn, and for them to feel happy to ask questions if they did not feel comfortable approaching lecturers themselves. As a PhD student, I hope to be able to volunteer in undergraduate lab sessions soon (these are students completing their first degree at University). This will involve me supporting them with experiments, helping with my techniques they are unsure of and helping them to find the answers to questions they are unsure of.
- Matthew Bareford answered on 6 Jun 2019:
  
  Yes! prior to my current role I was a science teacher in a secondary school for a year and a half and also I was the laboratory training officer in the hospital with university students.
  
  In my current role I quite often have work experience students from school and undergraduates/postgraduates from the university who I work with and teach laboratory skills to.
- Alex Blenkinsop answered on 6 Jun 2019:
  
  Yes, I have taught all sorts of people from statistics to university students to computer programming to very experienced professors. When you teach you always find things you didn’t quite understand completely (nobody’s perfect), so I’m always learning which is a great feeling 🙂
- Anabel Martinez Lyons answered on 6 Jun 2019:
  
  Yes – I’ve tutored in biology since I was 16, then worked for a tutoring company in London part time during my masters for biology and chemistry, and more recently have helped teach practical techniques to undergraduate and masters students that come into the lab I’m in now.
- Ettie Unwin answered on 6 Jun 2019:
  
  Yes – I’ve done lots of different levels of teaching. During my undergraduate I helped some of my peers with revision when they were struggling – I find trying to explain something to others really helps you make sure you understand it yourself.
  
  Then during my PhD I did small group teaching of maths required for engineers to first and third year undergraduates. I also ran a drop-in session teaching students how to write python code ( a piece of software used in doing data analysis on computers amongst other things). It was one of my favourite experiences during my PhD.
- Kaitlin Wade answered on 7 Jun 2019:
  
  I have never taught Science before as a class in school but I do a lot of teaching as part of my job. I love it and I get a lot of opportunities to travel to teach people across the world. I’ve been to Brazil, India, Japan, America and all over the UK to teach genetics, statistics and all sorts of things.
- Thiloka Ratnaike answered on 9 Jun 2019:
  
  I always try to take the opportunity to teach nursing and medical students when possible, I haven’t formally taught science to others. However, I do love teaching and seeing improvement in skills as a result so it is something I want to keep incorporating into my day job somehow!

Comments

Helen commented on 5 Jun 2019:

Not formally but my friends kids get the odd impromptu science lesson when I see them.
My dad doing experiments with me when I was a child was what got me into science so I want other people to experience that.

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Question: did u ever teach science to anyone?