First thing this morning I attended a social psychology lecture in Bute Hall.  I learned that the way a person is described to you can influence whether you like the person when you first meet them.

The same list of words running from positive to negative suggests you’ll like the person.  BUT listing the words from negative to positive suggests you’ll not like the person when you meet them. Something to consider!!!

What a thought provoking lecture in a stunning location.

The Hunterian is a museum that houses a large collection of life science exhibits.

The curator of zoology at the Huntarian explained that there are jobs for STEM degree graduates in museums. In fact, one sixth of the people working at the Hunterian have STEM subject degrees. The national history museum in London employs 300 people with STEM subject degrees.

The “Bug Lady” then gave us a talk – she is an expert entomologist.

I didn’t know there were over 900,000 known species of insects. BUT she said that it is estimated that there are still 2-30 million species still to be described.  AND she told us that there are 200 or more insects for every person on the planet.

Insects cause 2.7 million people a year to die of malaria. BUT they are useful too. Insects pollinate flowers to produce food.

These are some bees collected in the 18th century.  Bees are really important pollinators.

Ever wondered if a river has clean water? Well, if stoneflies like these are there it does contain clean water.

These are bird wing butterflies  – I put my thumb on the case so you could get some idea of the size.

But I don’t fancy finding any of these insects in my house!!!

The Hunterian is free to enter and anyone can visit.

This could be very useful for people intending to study at Glasgow University.

This is a service that helps support students who may have issues that make learning harder

Anyone with a mental health condition, a chronic medical condition, a visual impairment, a hearing impairment, a physical disability, an autism spectrum condition or  a specific learning difficulty e.g. Dyslexia  , dysgraphia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia or ADHD might want to  contact the DISABILITY SERVICE.

Jane spoke to us – she was lovely and helpful. The disability service is intended to help students who have arrangements in secondary school maintain this support in university – your support doesn’t automatically transfer to university.

You should book an appointment with a disability advisor as soon as possible. 0141 330 5497

A group of eight biology teachers all getting together to learn more about STEM Insight, Glasgow University and the Biochemical Society.

My time at Glasgow University is part funded by STEM Insight and the Biochemical Society.

I am one of the first group of teachers in Scotland to get this opportunity. Teachers have been selected from all over Scotland.  The aim of this placement is to help school teachers offer better careers  guidance to their students.

Glasgow has taken in over 600 first year students into the school of life sciences. 55% of these students come from Scotland.

There has recently been approved a ONE BILLION POUND improvement plan for the university- good news for future STEM university students.

I had the opportunity to observe first year medical students taking part in problem based learning. A group of 8 students were given a problem and they worked together to work out the LI’s.

They will go away and process this information and come back on Thursday to deliver their solutions to the group. It was very interesting –  all about the heart and a potential problem with heart valves.

How much do you remember?

I had the opportunity to use Moodle today. It is like GLOW and is used to allow students access to teaching materials. The lecturers even place videos of their lectures online!