The science consultancy project – Improving students perceived employability skills through a school placement unit

General graduate attributes are among some of the key skills that students in tertiary education develop so that they can increase their competitiveness in the workforce. There is currently a push for work integrated learning (WIL), with particular attention put towards placements, within the tertiary education sector to enable more work ready graduates from universities (Department of Industry, 2014). WIL has been shown to enhance students’ transferable skills by putting them in real world context. (Jackson, 2015) The traditional work placement has been to engage with industry. However, finding placements within industry is challenging. To meet the demand of student work placements the Faculty of Science at the University of Western Australia designed a unit where students act as a consultant to a primary or high school teacher that wanted a particular resource created for their science class. This presentation will describe the development of the unit, the assessment tasks and face-to-face interactions within the unit. Moreover, the reflection of students towards their project and time as a consultant provides valuable insight into the range of employability skills that students development within this unit

Naive and memory human B cells have distinct requirements for STAT3 activation to differentiate into antibody-secreting plasma cells

Long-lived antibody memory is mediated by the combined effects of long-lived plasma cells (PCs) and memory B cells generated in response to T cell–dependent antigens (Ags). IL-10 and IL-21 can activate multiple signaling pathways, including STAT1, STAT3, and STAT5; ERK; PI3K/Akt, and potently promote human B cell differentiation. We previously showed that loss-of-function mutations in STAT3, but not STAT1, abrogate IL-10– and IL-21–mediated differentiation of human naive B cells into plasmablasts. We report here that, in contrast to naive B cells, STAT3-deficient memory B cells responded to these STAT3-activating cytokines, differentiating into plasmablasts and secreting high levels of IgM, IgG, and IgA, as well as Ag-specific IgG. This was associated with the induction of the molecular machinery necessary for PC formation. Mutations in IL21R, however, abolished IL-21–induced responses of both naive and memory human B cells and compromised memory B cell formation in vivo. These findings reveal a key role for IL-21R/STAT3 signaling in regulating human B cell function. Furthermore, our results indicate that the threshold of STAT3 activation required for differentiation is lower in memory compared with naive B cells, thereby identifying an intrinsic difference in the mechanism underlying differentiation of naive versus memory B cells