MacDougall, Margaret

English

Each year, from June to August, the Nuffield Research Placements (NRP) scheme offers sixth form pupils funding to gain a four- to six-week science research placement at a participating institution. Margaret MacDougall, a medical statistician and researcher in education at the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine in Edinburgh, gives an insight into hosting one of these students and what it entails

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     Edinburgh Research Explorer                                      Helping the next generation of STEM researchers: NuffieldResearch PlacementsCitation for published version:MacDougall, M 2016, Helping the next generation of STEM researchers: Nuffield Research Placements.Royal Statistical Society.Link:Link to publication record in Edinburgh Research ExplorerDocument Version:Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of recordGeneral rightsCopyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s)and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise andabide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.Take down policyThe University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorercontent complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright pleasecontact openaccess@ed.ac.uk providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately andinvestigate your claim.Download date: 22. Nov. 2020Helping the next generation of STEM researchers:Nuffield Research PlacementsWritten by Margaret MacDougall (/component/contact/contact/292) on 20 June 2016. Posted in Features (/features)Each year, from June to August, the Nuffield ResearchPlacements (NRP) (http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/nuffield­research­placements) scheme offers sixth form pupils funding togain a four­ to six­week science research placement at aparticipating institution. Margaret MacDougall, a medicalstatistician and researcher in education at the College of Medicineand Veterinary Medicine in Edinburgh, gives an insight into hostingone of these students and what it entails.I received initial expressions of interest in my advertised projectsfrom Andrew Girdwood and Becky Miller (pictured left) ofBraidhurst and Coatbridge Schools, respectively, in NorthLanarkshire. They had each expressed an initial preference forthe same project. I invited them to attend a semiformal interview with me within the Centre for PopulationHealth Sciences, University of Edinburgh (UoE). Both were successful in their interviews.In advance of their placements, both candidates were given some preparatory reading. This took the form ofa series of three papers which I had previously published in the field of research­teaching linkages. Thisensured that both candidates were provided with some background and rationale for their own researchtogether with early exposure to academic writing styles.Andrew and Becky shared an open­plan office with PhD students, one of whom was able to break the icethrough sharing an impressive gallery of origami figures. On their first day, they also participated in a formalhealth and safety induction and IT briefing and were encouraged to complete a work­based riskassessment. To support development of research skills, they consulted a customised version of my lecturenotes for senior medical students, inclusive of advice on accessing my online statistics resources, to whichthey were granted temporary login access.(https://www.statslife.org.uk)(https://www.statslife.org.uk)Features(http://www.rss.org.uk)The project was a spin­off project from my Higher EducationAcademy­funded project Research­based SSCs: A pragmaticapproach to advancing the research­teaching nexus in UK medicalschools(http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.11120/hsce.2014.00049).The project area was Year 4 undergraduate medical studentapproaches to their learning while engaged in mandatory short­term research projects. Andrew and Becky played a key role inidentifying possible student factors which pre­dispose suchstudents to making choices which enhance their learningexperiences as researchers. They also addressed a wide range ofsecondary goals, including investigating medical studentperceptions of their own research experiences.Their responsibilities included preparation of anonymised undergraduate medical student questionnaireresponse data for analysis and in turn, presentation and analysis of these data using IBM SPSS (StatisticalPackage for the Social Sciences) and Minitab. Andrew worked on the project for two weeks prior to Becky’sarrival. With the help of my Data Preparation tutorial (http://www.jaqm.ro/issues/volume­3,issue­3/pdfs/macdougall.pdf) (PDF), he acquired hands­on experience of the iterative process that typifies thesimplification of comprehensive survey data. He was also able to demonstrate creativity in the coding of freetext response data.During the first week of her placement, Becky was in turn able to compare her independent coding with thatof Andrew's. Correspondingly, both students appreciated the role of assessing reproducibility of data at theinterface between qualitative and quantitative research methods. During the project, they were alsoexercised in the language and science of hypothesis testing and the assumptions behind the correct choiceof individual hypothesis tests. They acquired training in sound principles for the visual display of data and theinterpretation of confidence intervals, including the completion of comprehensive dissertation­style researchreports. During their placements they also took up the offer of having an interview with a university careersadviser to further support identification of their career options prior to returning to secondary school for afinal year.I had the privilege of attending the closing Nuffield Celebration Event with one of my NRP students. Thestudent offered a poster presentation at the event, while gaining a flavour of participating in a scientificconference. This year, I hope to revisit the NRP student work with a view to preparing relevant content forpublication in a peer­reviewed journal.While my NRP students were very productive in their research and brought their project work to successfulcompletion, I would recommend that future project providers explore the opportunity to offer a buddyingsystem for NRP students. This would allow existing junior researchers to take a share in the mentoringresponsibilities involved in helping NRP students to feel at ease within their new working environments.Ideas for good practice in this area could be derived through adapting the recommendations offered in themore recent University of Edinburgh buddy system guide 'Role of the buddy in the induction process(http://www.docs.csg.ed.ac.uk/HumanResources/Recruitment/Role_of_the_Buddy_in_the_Induction_Process.pdf)(PDF).­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­< Prev (/features/2932­rss­official­stats­and­journalism­awards­2016­awards­ceremony)Next > (/features/2912­can­we­improve­the­quality­of­the­referendum­debate)The Nuffield Research Placements scheme is managed by the Nuffield Foundation, a charitable trust, withfunding support from Research Councils UK, the Society for General Microbiology and the Wellcome trust.Participating host institutions are responsible for volunteering projects for the students to work on, andeligible students are selected in the first instance by a structured application process. Candidates in schoolsfrom less affluent areas or who do not have a family history of attendance at university are encouraged toapply.Second photograph kindly taken by Lesley Gardner, research administrator, UoE.3The Nuffield Foundation (/component/tags/tag/62­the­nuffield­foundation)Wellcome Trust (/component/tags/tag/225­wellcome­trust)Powered by Komento (http://stackideas.com)Add commentCOMMENTSNo comments foundSort by Oldest First 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Helping the next generation of STEM researchers: Nuffield Research Placements

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Helping the next generation of STEM researchers: Nuffield Research Placements

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