{"id":1858,"date":"2015-09-22T14:52:39","date_gmt":"2015-09-22T13:52:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/ltdev\/?p=1858"},"modified":"2015-09-22T15:11:37","modified_gmt":"2015-09-22T14:11:37","slug":"innovation-fund-winner-one-year-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/ltdev\/2015\/09\/22\/innovation-fund-winner-one-year-on\/","title":{"rendered":"The Innovation Fund – One Year On"},"content":{"rendered":"

One year on from her Innovation Fund win, Biology\u2019s Alison Graham is handing over the reins of a very successful PG demonstrators training programme to other colleagues.
\nThe Innovation Fund<\/a> is administered by ULTSEC (the University\u2019s Learning and Teaching Student Experience Committee) to support schemes which represent new or innovative approaches to teaching and learning in the University.
\nIn particular, it hopes to financially support schemes which can be taken up by faculties and schools across the University.
\nAlison\u2019s idea has already been picked up by other Schools in the University and Alison feels that it has brought a great deal to both UG and PG students in the School of Biology.<\/p>\n

\u2018We realised several years ago that there was a real need for consistency in the standards of our demonstrators, all of whom had very varied experience and skill sets.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2018This was something the PGs themselves had pointed out and it was something that was coming across in the feedback from our UG students who felt that the standards of their practicals were dictated largely by the abilities of their PG demonstrator.
\n\u2018They also did not seem to know what the demonstrators did or that they were research students in the School so we wanted to find a way to introduce them.\u2019
\nAlison applied to the University\u2019s Innovation Fund for funding to run a programme which aimed to \u2018to engender a more productive learning environment for undergraduate and postgraduate students alike.\u2019
\nThe team began by arranging an informal workshop to introduce PG Demonstrators to new UG students.
\n\u2018We had them come in and do some very basic experiments \u2013 one of their favourites is using paintbrushes to tickle the feet of stick insects and measuring how many feet they will take off the ground at once!<\/p>\n

\"PG<\/a>
PG Demonstrators talk to new undergraduates their own work in the workshops<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018So we had them doing that and then had each demonstrator take some time to tell the new students about their own research.<\/p>\n

‘This gave the UG students a sense of the PG\u2019s place in the school, an insight into their own future career paths and a sense of who each demonstrator was.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2018Both groups responded really positively and it\u2019s now not unusual to hear the UG students asking how someone\u2019s research is going, making everyone feel like part of a research community.\u2019\u00a0The workshop will run again this year.
\nAlison said: \u2018We\u2019ve also completely changed how demonstrators can sign up for modules and how they can let lecturers know what their particular skills are, which is making planning this year\u2019s practicals very much easier.
\n\u2018It\u2019s really been a huge success, making PGs more comfortable with their teaching and with their marking and UGs more familiar and confident with those demonstrating in their practicals.
\n\u2018It\u2019s been a real win-win!\u2019<\/p>\n

Do you have a great idea to put forward to the ULTSEC Innovation Fund?<\/strong> <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The call for applications<\/a> for the 2015\/16 fund is open now!<\/em>
\n Or if you have an example of really effective teaching practice in your School do get in touch with Katherine.cooper@ncl.ac.uk.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One year on from her Innovation Fund win, Biology\u2019s Alison Graham is handing over the reins of a very successful PG demonstrators training programme to other colleagues. The Innovation Fund is administered by ULTSEC (the University\u2019s Learning and Teaching Student Experience Committee) to support schemes which represent new or innovative approaches to teaching and learning … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Innovation Fund – One Year On”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1649,"featured_media":1861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[265,1],"tags":[266],"class_list":["post-1858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-other","tag-postgraduates-training-stick-insects-biols-graham-pg-demonstrators"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/ltdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/ltdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/ltdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/ltdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1649"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/ltdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1858"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/ltdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1871,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/ltdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1858\/revisions\/1871"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/ltdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/ltdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/ltdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/ltdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}