Using Labster to improve Bioscience student learning and engagement in practical classes

Background: Virtual laboratory simulations can be used to provide students with an introduction to the laboratories; further they allow students to have safe and 24 h access to learn laboratories skills. The Labster simulations contain theoretical questions which must be correctly answered before the user can progress to the next stage. Further supplementary theory is available throughout the simulation. Following pilot studies last year; we now report on 2 cohorts of students who used the Labster simulations within core modules. We have used thes Labster simulations in a core level 4 Biochemistry module (207 students used out of 350 on the module) and level 5 Molecular Biology and Genetics module (26 students of 68 registered on the module copleted a survey). Students completed surveys with Likert type responses to determine how the students felt that the virtual simulations had enhanced their theoretical knowledge and prepared them for practical classes. Future work: Labster simulations have been favourably reported on by students in both level 4 and 5. However a challenge remains to encourage all students to complete the simulations. Participation was greater in the level 4 module where the Labster Learning Outcomes aligned more closely to the module Learning Outcomes

Evaluating the benefits of virtual training for bioscience students

Virtual laboratory simulations are commercially available to train students; these creative resources are available to complete remotely without traditional time and safety restrictions of laboratory-based practical classes. We introduced a Health and Safety virtual laboratory simulation to a core large first-year science module. Having surveyed students using a combination of Likert-type responses, multiple answer questions and free text responses, students reported that it had increased understanding and knowledge. Additionally, students reported that the laboratory simulation was motivating and had increased confidence for actual practical classes. We also surveyed students one year after completing the simulation finding a similar pattern of responses; the simulation had been useful, increasing confidence and knowledge about Health and Safety. Our data show that the virtual laboratory simulation improved student understanding and was still perceived to have been useful one year after completion, providing evidence of a longer term impact of the simulation on student learning

Addressing the challenges of delivering a laboratory class when students are miles away

Background: The global Covid-19 pandemic instigated many challenges for Higher Education teaching, especially for Life Science students who need learn a range of laboratory techniques and gain psychomotor skills as part of their degree course. These laboratory-based skills are required by professional bodies and bioscience employers. Even before the pandemic it had been observed that the student laboratory experience could be impeded by several factors, including but not limited to; cost of specialized equipment; time available; scheduled access hours; student numbers and requirement for group work. Outline: During the pandemic on-site laboratory sessions were dramatically changed to allow social distancing; risk assessments reduced both the capacity and time available for laboratory use to enable rigorous cleaning between classes. These new conditions refocused the laboratory scenarios to allow cross-module and degree course relevance. Emphasis for on-site attendance was always placed upon feeling safe, so that no student felt pressured to attend the University, also it was recognized that many students might have returned to families during the pandemic either in the UK or overseas. Therefore, laboratory teaching was filmed with SMOTs™ cameras, which allow close-up filming from multiple angles, and live streamed to students watching from home who could participate remotely through chat threads. To prepare students for on-site or live-streamed laboratory sessions, completion of relevant virtual laboratory simulations was required. During the laboratory classes supplementary virtual laboratory simulations, quizzes, videos, and relevant background information, provided via the VLE, was deployed. The laboratory sessions were directly followed with tutorials either on-site or online.Methodology: Students experiences of these sessions were collected via Likert type surveys which included free text responses and VLE login attendance data. Academic staff viewpoints were obtained via reflective in-progress feedback on the sessions and follow-up questions. Preliminary findings: Students who did not wish to travel to the University, valued the opportunity to attend live-streamed practical sessions appreciating the chance to engage with questions, comments, and requests. The quality of infrastructure is critical for a good experience (multiple camera set-up and internet) for both students and teaching staff, together with trained camera operators. Critical reflections from staff revealed the importance of having an academic staff member focused on the online attendees whilst another colleague attended to students physically present; this was pertinent to both the laboratory and subsequent tutorial. Reflections Making Connections, Innovating and Sharing Pedagogy21 on the live-stream recordings revealed dead-time and sessions were adapted to include online activities (short virtual laboratory technique simulations, videos, quizzes) to reduce drop-out of on-line students.Summary: Covid-19 has impacted on-site laboratory teaching sessions, paradoxically it has forced a greater focus on what is taught, allowing more explicit linkage of subjects across modules and degree courses. Collaborating with NHS biomedical scientists has enabled employers to be introduced during the breakout tutorials enhancing student awareness of real-world scenarios, broader employment and graduate requirements. Moreover, adapting laboratory teaching for students simultaneously online and on-site has allowed greater accessibility for student learning and engagement

New ways of working in School of Life Sciences

New ways of working in School of Life Sciences Caroline Smith and Sarah Coleman (School of Life Sciences) In this presentation, we will present staff and student views of synchronous online and onsite teaching, and whether this mode has proved more inclusive and sustainable. From initial surveys, the online teaching had been welcomed because it had enabled a more flexible timetable. However, with the fully online learning, the sense of community had diminished and resulted in limited access to specialist resources. Based on these findings, a new timetable has been launched which includes both on-site and online teaching. We will present the findings of staff and student experiences of this new delivery and will also discuss some of the barriers which have been encountered

Using virtual reality laboratories to improve engagement and understanding for wet laboratory practical sessions

University of Westminster has a large entry intake into its various Bioscience degree pathways. Incoming students have a wide range of entry qualifications and laboratory experience. Practical sessions are expensive and take time and often require students to work in groups. Further, many current cutting edge biological techniques are often too time consuming or too expensive to run as a large scale taught practical session. To try to improve student confidence and engagement in actual practical classes we have made a range of virtual laboratory simulations available to the students. Thus, the virtual laboratory is used to provide context and as an alternative learning experience to the theory taught in class. The aim of this study is to evaluate if such virtual simulations promote student learning; and whether the rationale for academic staff deployment of such resources align with student reasons for utilizing. Virtual laboratory simulations have been embedded into a number of foundation, undergraduate and post-graduate modules, for both formative and summative assessment. Students self-reported that the simulations improved understanding through survey responses. We report how this questionnaire data is enriched with qualitative data from small group interviews from students, these have focused on on student engagement and whether these virtual laboratory simulations have enhanced learning. Moreover, we examine the student reasons for engaging with, or not, such resources

Employer and work-based student perceptions of virtual laboratory teaching and assessment resources

Training in laboratory competency is an important part of biomedical student skill acquisition in preparation for both the workplace and accreditation. Virtual laboratory simulations are currently used in core modules at University of Westminster to prepare biomedical science students for laboratory sessions. These simulations are used for formative and summative assessment and incorporate questions on theoretical aspects, in addition to simulating laboratory techniques. Whilst analysis has been carried out on student learning with virtual laboratory simulations, the impact of these on work-based students and the opinions of employers has not been evaluated.Students undertaking core first year modules include part-time attendance work-based students and part-time distance learners, who are mostly employed in diagnostic laboratory settings. Part-time work-based students and distance learners often need to be more efficient and maximise their use of available study time than their full-time student peers. The aim of this study was to collect the views of the work-based students and their employers on these virtual laboratory simulations through semi-structured interviews to evaluate the effectiveness of these teaching tools for work-based students. This report presents the comments of part-time students, distance learners and employers relating to the use of virtual laboratory simulations highlighting key similarities and differences. The consensus is that use of the virtual laboratory is helpful and can supplement but not replace practical classes and employer-led training. At present there is no appetite amongst employers to use these simulations to replace competency testing. Whilst virtual laboratory simulations are recognised to have benefits, there are caveats related to both cost/ benefit and to how they should be deployed

Atomic Model of Susy Hubbard Operators

We apply the recently proposed susy Hubbard operators to an atomic model. In the limiting case of free spins, we derive exact results for the entropy which are compared with a mean field + gaussian corrections description. We show how these results can be extended to the case of charge fluctuations and calculate exact results for the partition function, free energy and heat capacity of an atomic model for some simple examples. Wavefunctions of possible states are listed. We compare the accuracy of large N expansions of the susy spin operators with those obtained using `Schwinger bosons' and `Abrikosov pseudo-fermions'. For the atomic model, we compare results of slave boson, slave fermion, and susy Hubbard operator approximations in the physically interesting but uncontrolled limiting case of N->2. For a mixed representation of spins we estimate the accuracy of large N expansions of the atomic model. In the single box limit, we find that the lowest energy saddle-point solution reduces to simply either slave bosons or slave fermions, while for higher boxes this is not the case. The highest energy saddle-point solution has the interesting feature that it admits a small region of a mixed representation, which bears a superficial resemblance to that seen experimentally close to an antiferromagnetic quantum critical point.Comment: 17 pages + 7 pages Appendices, 14 figures. Substantial revision

Optimal low-thrust trajectories to asteroids through an algorithm based on differential dynamic programming

In this paper an optimisation algorithm based on Differential Dynamic Programming is applied to the design of rendezvous and fly-by trajectories to near Earth objects. Differential dynamic programming is a successive approximation technique that computes a feedback control law in correspondence of a fixed number of decision times. In this way the high dimensional problem characteristic of low-thrust optimisation is reduced into a series of small dimensional problems. The proposed method exploits the stage-wise approach to incorporate an adaptive refinement of the discretisation mesh within the optimisation process. A particular interpolation technique was used to preserve the feedback nature of the control law, thus improving robustness against some approximation errors introduced during the adaptation process. The algorithm implements global variations of the control law, which ensure a further increase in robustness. The results presented show how the proposed approach is capable of fully exploiting the multi-body dynamics of the problem; in fact, in one of the study cases, a fly-by of the Earth is scheduled, which was not included in the first guess solution

Interacting one dimensional electron gas with open boundaries

We discuss the properties of interacting electrons on a finite chain with open boundary conditions. We extend the Haldane Luttinger liquid description to these systems and study how the presence of the boundaries modifies various correlation functions. In view of possible experimental applications to quantum wires, we analyse how tunneling measurements can reveal the underlying Luttinger liquid properties. The two terminal conductance is calculated. We also point out possible applications to quasi one dimensional materials and study the effects of magnetic impurities.Comment: 38 pages, ReVTeX, 7 figures (available upon request

Multi-Channel Kondo Necklace

A multi--channel generalization of Doniach's Kondo necklace model is formulated, and its phase diagram studied in the mean--field approximation. Our intention is to introduce the possible simplest model which displays some of the features expected from the overscreened Kondo lattice. The $N$ conduction electron channels are represented by $N$ sets of pseudospins \vt_{j}, $j=1, ... , N$, which are all antiferromagnetically coupled to a periodic array of |\vs|=1/2 spins. Exploiting permutation symmetry in the channel index $j$ allows us to write down the self--consistency equation for general $N$. For $N>2$, we find that the critical temperature is rising with increasing Kondo interaction; we interpret this effect by pointing out that the Kondo coupling creates the composite pseudospin objects which undergo an ordering transition. The relevance of our findings to the underlying fermionic multi--channel problem is discussed.Comment: 29 pages (2 figures upon request from [email protected]), LATEX, submitted for publicatio