Final thoughts on the module and how it has influenced my future

During this module I attended many seminars and wrote my blog about six of them.

I first wrote a seminar that was given by George Turner about Adaptive radiation in Cichlids in the Lake surrounding Lake Malawi. I really enjoyed this talk by Dr George Turner; it’s really interesting to experience discoveries in the making. When I was in my first year at Bangor University, I remember getting a talk from George telling us how he was going to travel to Lake Masoko to study Cichlids and not to hear the results is really interesting.

My second seminar blog was on talk on the conservation of the Pine Marten. I chose to write my blog on this topic as I have a real interest in the conservation of species, especially those native to the UK. I really enjoyed this talk, and has made me interested in the conservation of the Pine Marten. I feel that with a change of public perception, education and conservation the Pine Marten may once more become a prominent mammal with in UK

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The third seminar I chose to write about was as talk given by Dr Mark Pilgrim who gave a talk about the conservation efforts of Chester Zoo. I really enjoyed this talk by director of Chester Zoo Dr Mark Pilgrim and has given me an insight into the conservation projects that Zoos work on behind the scene away from the public eye. This talk also highlighted endangered species that do not always much coverage and I would like to think that my blog covered this

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In February I wrote a blog about the Control of the Grey Squirrel. As expected this was quite a controversial blog, which I found got a lot of comments. I found this talk, given by Craig Shuttleworth of real interest and I believe that talks like this could help to change the perception of Grey Squirrel culling and help people see that there is hope for our Red Squirrel populations.

I then wrote a blog about a talk given to us by Gerry Martin combating the snake bite epidemic in India. I found this talk both interesting and shocking, I was not aware of how many deaths are caused by snake bites per year in India. I also found it interesting that Gerry Martin, who lived on a farm in India for over 30 years, was never bitten, just showing that education is the key to combating this epidemic.

For my final seminar blog I focused on a talk about protecting and restoring our lowland raised bogs. With these bogs creating habitats for many species, including many raptors, endangered butterflies, brown hares, water vowels and even cranes, it is of the upmost important that these areas are protected. The Lancashire wildlife trust organised talk, events and walks to help raise both awareness and money so that hopefully in the future these bogs can be restored to their original state.

Future career
After attending and blogging about these seminars I would say that they haven’t necessary made me want to have a future career in research exactly. What they have done however is to increase my drive for conservation, and I have learnt through these seminars that research is a great way to conserve and protect species.

Enterprise Ideas
Although I found these talks of great interest I do not believe that I came up with any enterprise ideas of the back of them. I do however feel that some of the ideas such as collecting and analysing venom would be of great use in other areas such as Africa.

New contacts
These series of seminars have helped build up contacts within the biological field. I have been in contact with Dr Mark Pilgrim and am hoping to carry out some volunteer work for the Chat Moss project.

Pros and cons of the seminar series
I feel these series of seminars were very diverse and covered a range of subjects within the field of biology form conservation, research and government projects. I would say a con of the seminar listings was that in some months there were many seminars that I would have loved to blog about where as in other months I found it more difficult to decide on a seminar to talk about.

Module components
There were five main components to this module. The first being an assessment centre workshop / Interview task. This component was very early on in the course and I was not really too sure what to expect. We were told that we would be having an interview followed by some exercises, so still kept in the dark slightly, but it turned out to be a really enjoyable day. At the end of the day we found out that everything we did from the moment we walked in to the moment we left was being evaluated. I feel that finding out at the end of the day we were being assessed through the whole day was a great way of doing it , as the pressure was not on throughout the entire day, which enabled us to enjoy the activates and work well within a team.

 

The second component  was a careers cafe. The careers cafe was open to all students and gave an opportunity for current students to listen to 5 ex Bangor students who of all gone on to have very different careers in the biology sector. I learnt that hard work will always pay off and that volunteering is a great way to get into a company. I have also learnt to take any opportunity even if it’s not what I think I necessary want to do, I might surprise myself and end up in a career I have never even thought of.

The next task within this module was to create a CV and cover letter for a job that we would like apply for. I found this piece of work to be really useful in updating my CV as well as improving my skills in job searching and creating a covering letter to fit that that particular job description. I believe these skills will come in handy for job searching and applying in the future.

The Dragons Den exercise was next. I have to be honest, I was a bit nervous about this exercise, the name made it sound like we would be interrogated, to then be told that our business idea was never going to work. I could not have been the opposite of that. Although I originally dreaded this exercise I ended up really enjoying it. I feel it was very helping in the writing of the next assignment which focused on a business plan. I also felt it improved my team work and presentation skills.

 

The final component to this module was to write an assay on how the knowledge of how to prepare a business plan will be helpful to me in the future. Although when I started this assignment I was skeptical of how this will be of use to me. I found that looking deeply into the role of a teacher and business plan was really useful.

Overall I found this module very enjoyable, I also feel that this module helped improve my skills in many aspects, from team work to public speaking. I also feel that I have more confidence in applying for jobs and planning for my future career.

Blog comments for April

http://lovejuice3000.wordpress.com/2014/04/12/an-opinion-on-human-wildlife-conflicts-following-a-seminar-on-trophy-hunting/

An opinion on human-wildlife conflicts (Following a seminar on trophy hunting).

Just like you I have heard about trophy hunting before, and do certainly not agree with it, but I have never done any serious research on the subject. Just like the bush meat trade, which has been previously mentioned in blogs, again there is a catch 22 with people needing these ‘trophy’s’ to sell to feed their families. Just like I mentioned on a blog comments on the bush meat trade I believe the answer could be to educate the locals of how to make money from eco-tourism.

http://bsuccf.wordpress.com/2014/02/21/landscape-scale-grey-squirrel-control-lessons-from-the-uk/

Landscape scale Grey Squirrel Control: Lessons from the UK.

I like the introduction to the topic on this blog, it really paints the picture of how grey squirrels are causing problems in the UK, not just for the red squirrel but also for humans, like you said with chewing cabled and causing fires.  I think the map of both red and grey squirrel populations in 1998 was useful however, I feel that this would have had more of an impact if there was another map to compare it to showing the populations in other years. Overall a great blog which I really enjoyed reading, with some great pictures.

How the knowledge of how to prepare a business plan will be helpful to me in the future

I have recently been asked to write an essay of how the knowledge of how to prepare a business plan will be helpful to me in my future career. I will be the first to admit that I did not think that having this knowledge will be of use to me unless I have a career in the business sector.

However after having lectures with Chris Walker I have realised that the skills involved are transferable.  I hope that my future career will be in the teaching sector. Even though, after listening to the lecturers by Chris Walker, I was convinced that business plan skills are transferable, I did wonder how these would transfer to a teaching position.

I started writing this assignment and was very unsure of how I would transfer these skills. However, I took on this assignment section by section.  There are many components to a business plan and after looking into these deeply I found that the knowledge of how to prepare these components could be of use to me in the future.

For example, one component of a business plan is ‘Organisation structure’ this section includes the people who will be involved in the business as well as stating where the business will be conducted from. These can be transferred into a teaching environment when planning and teaching lessons it is important to know which members of staff are needed, e.g. teaching support for students with learning difficulties. It is also imperative that the correct location is chosen for specific lessons.

Although when I started this assignment I was sceptical of how this will be of use to me. I found that looking deeply into the role of a teacher and business plan was really useful.

Restoring Britain’s Lowland raised bogs; why is it so important ?

http://www.lancswt.org.uk/places-to-see/astley-moss

So firstly, what is a lowland raised bog, a lowland raised bog occurs on impermeable ground such as sand or clay. Sphagnum moss grown upon water filled holes within this ground, eventually the moss will condense and grown until a dome forms as the peat accumulates .

History of our bogs

Lowland raised bogs used to cover a vast area within Lancashire. A railway was built, running between Liverpool and Manchester on top of these bogs and due to this new access to the bogs the peat was farmed and used and horse bedding. Once this was done the horse bedding, was then spread back over the bogs; however this then included horse manure, which made it great for agriculture, but made it impossible for peat bogs to form for around 1,000 years.

Due to this, the peat bog declined and 60% was  lost in 50 years, after which another 50% of the remaining bog was lost in the next 50 years.  With the current status now at only 12% of the original peat bog remaining.

Why is it so important ?

Peat bogs create wild space within our environment and with these bogs being so close to urbanised areas, they create a great opportunity for people to encounter truly wild space.

Peat bogs are also great at absorbing carbon, with around 20% more carbon capacity than our forests. This is massively important in are fight against climate change as bogs can hold as much carbon and the UK procures in 35 years.

These also hold great secrets about Britain’s history unearthing trees over 10,000 years old under these bogs.  As well as natural secrets, these bogs may also hold the key to some unanswered questions about humans past. ‘Bog bodies’ have been found here that could age back between 4-5,000 years. Some of these bodies have also been holding fire starting kits, which could tell us huge amounts about our history

http://archive.archaeology.org/1005/bogbodies/

The Manchester mosses

There are three mosses currently owned by the Lancashire wildlife trust in the Manchester area.

1. Astley moss- this area was bought in the early 1980’s and has many threats such as water loss and nutrient enrichment. Much work has been done on this area, including felling trees and increasing the amount of sphagnum moss on the site. The restoration of this bog has been successful so far, however there is still a long way to go to restore back to its original state.

2.  Cadishead moss- Releveling was done here to ensure, the water level was high and constant throughout, so optimal conditions could be achieved  for plant growth. This involved taking ground from higher levels and transferring it into lower levels so that a constant altitude was achieved throughout.

3. Little woolden moss- this area was bought very recently in August of 2012. This buy was urgent as it was in the process of being turned into agricultural land.

Managements

The management and restoration of these mosses includes:

-scrub clearances

-blocking drainage ditches and raising the water table

– removing invasive species, such as balsam

-translocating sphagnum from sights of high density to areas of low density

-propagating moss land plants in nurseries, so that healthy populations can be maintained

Future

With these bogs creating habitats for many species, including many raptors, endangered butterflies, brown hares, water vowels and even cranes, it is of the up-most important that these areas are protected. The Lancashire wildlife trust organises talk, events and walks to help raise both awareness and money so that hopefully in the future these bogs can be restored to their original state.

Blog comments for March

http://bsue3d.wordpress.com/

What’s for dinner: illegal hunting and the bush meat trade an emerging crisis in African savannah’s

I was also shocked to hear that bush meat is being sold in cities such as London and Paris.  I agree with you on the catch 22 about where to draw the line with bush meat hunting. Like you said some people rely on this meat to keep their families alive however the commercialization of it is taking it too far. Hopefully in high risk areas such as Mozambique , hunters can be trained to become part of the eco-tourism business, so they make money from the wildlife being alive and can still provide for their families.

 

Tim Hall’s hitch hikers guide to Forestry

Tim Hall’s hitch hikers guide to forestry

Unfortunately I missed this talk, but I found it really interest that you mentioned urban forestry decreases in people suffering with depression and anti-social behaviour. I also live next to an urban forest and agree with you on the benefits. I have never heard of trees reducing heat storing within roads, which I found a really interest benefit that I would have never thought of. Although you have not mentioned it, another problem I have seen with urban forests is with the roots of the trees wrecking pavements. I have also seen it where root of trees will grow under houses and ruin foundations, causing the house to be unsafe to live in.

 

Combating the snake bite epidemic in India

Current status

Snake bites are a national problem in India with between 40,000 and 50,000 people dying each year from the result of snake bites. This issue is still rife with around  46,000 people falling victim to a  fatal bite in 2011.

Although these figures are shocking enough, the damage caused by a bite, even when death does not occur is still catastrophic, with between 150,000 and 200,000 people having serious mobility problems, such as loss of limb each year in India alone due to snake bites.

Along with all these bites, one of the main problems is the lack of treatment available to patients. In many parts of India medical care is too expensive for the vast majority of the population. Along with this the medical treatment for snake bites it very poor. There is only one company that produces anti-venom in the country, this anti-venom is used for all snake bite victims.

This causes major issues, as not only is anti-venom being used to treat dry bites, it is also being used in the wrong dosage and for snake species that the anti-venom will not work effectively.

Combating the problem

There are what are known as the ‘top four’ snakes, which are medically significant in India.

The Russell’s viper (Pobia russelli)

http://www.treknature.com/gallery/Asia/India/photo210926.htm

The Saw-scaled viper (Echis carinatus)

   

http://www.arkive.org/sind-saw-scaled-viper/echis-carinatus-sochureki/image-G54515.html

The Spectacled cobra (Nija nija)

http://kalyan-city.blogspot.com/2010/07/indian-cobra-spectacled-cobra-common.html

The common krait (Bungaras caeruleus)

http://rahulalvares.com/2013/04/the-blue-krait/

Although these four species have been thought to be the most medically significant snakes in India, it is now though that some other species of pit vipers, kraits and sea snakes could cause enough damage to be classed as a medically important species.

A project is now set up to try and combat these medically important species. This project involves scientists such as Gerry Martin, traveling around India collecting venom. They travel to sights where Russell vipers are common, as they are one of the most common snake bites.

Once the venom has been collected analysis is carried out so that population and species specific anti-venoms can be created.

Education, Education, Education

Within most parts of India the main issue is the lack of education.   Most people are not aware of the different species of snake and therefore provide unreliable information to doctors, jeopardising successful treatment.

One of the main aims of the project is to educate people about the different species of snakes and mainly how to reduce to risk of being bitten in the first place. Scientists such as Gerry Martin are working with forest department staff and local farmers to educate about the risks of snakes and how to afford a bite occurring.

I found this talk both interesting and shocking, I was not aware of how many deaths are caused by snake bites per year in India. I also found it interesting that Gerry Martin, who lived on a farm in India for over 30 years, was never bitten, just showing that education is the key to combating this epidemic.

Blog Comments for February

 

http://bioenterpriseandemployability.wordpress.com/

Model species Daphnia: a genome for the environment

I’ll be the first to admit, just like you I didn’t think daphnia had such interesting characteristics; I also had no idea what a good model system they could be for the study of environmental genomics. I also have to admit I rarely think of unsanitary water being a problem in countries such and Brazil and the USA. This blog really made me appreciate the complexity and usefulness of the Daphnia.

I found this really interesting that we can use these animals as a tool to improve human society .

 

http://biologystudent93.wordpress.com/

I also attended this talk, and have similar opinions, I also found this talk really interesting, especially what you wrote about the public ‘ 69% of the public thought that their plight is something to be dealt with!’  I was just wondering what you think the probability of Squirrel pox reaching Anglesey? I would also like to ask, I know this is a hard question that people have asked me, but do you think the Grey Squirrel cull will work and also do you think it could work nation wide ?

Control of the Grey Squirrel: Will it work?

http://www.spacefornature.co.uk/default1a44.html?gallery=Galleries%5CAnimals%5CMammals%5Cgrey-squirrel-jason-alexander-050619.xmlhttps://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&docid=AIZVVfUJs1YSjM&tbnid=Bm d63SXdcSQpQM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.picstopin.com%2F851%2Fred-squirrel-wallpaper-

Introduction.

The Grey squirrel is one of most prominent alien species which has invaded the UK.  Since its introduction into Great Britain in 1876 when it was brought over from North America, the Grey Squirrel has been causing problems for both humans and local wildlife. One such problem is where the Grey Squirrels will nest in loft spaces, this in turn causes problems such as them destroying beams and insulation and even chewing wires which can result in the occurrence of house fires

The grey squirrel has also created problems for our local wildlife. It has been shown that in areas where Grey Squirrels are present, there is a 15% decline in the survival of song bird fledglings. However the most detrimental effect the Grey Squirrel is having on our wildlife is on the decline of our native Red Squirrel.

http://rsst.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/squirrel-maps.jpg

Grey Squirrel and its effects on the Red Squirrel population

As well as the direct competition for food and resources, Red Squirrels are also being over ruled by the presence of the Squirrel pox virus infection. This infection causes lesions on the skin and is fatal within 3 weeks of infection. Yet, although the Grey Squirrels carry this virus, it is only the Red Squirrels who are actually affected.  As there is no cure for this and it is still uncertain how this disease is spread it is obvious that with Grey Squirrels invading Red Squirrel territories this disease will cause many more deaths. Despite this evidence, some of the general public can still not come to terms with the Grey Squirrel gull.

http://www.jksl.com/news_detail-313.htm

Conservation on Anglesey

Anglesey is one of the few places in the UK where Red Squirrels are still present. However with only 4-5% of the Island covered in woodland it is important that this population is conserved and protected. With this in mind a project was established to trap and eradicate all the Grey Squirrels on the island. When this project started there were just 40 red adult Red Squirrels on Anglesey with an estimated 3,000-4,000 Grey Squirrels.

Since the project started the number of Grey Squirrels has decreased dramatically with only 1 individual being caught in 2013. With this, the number of Red Squirrels has increased with people even spotting red squirrels outside of the forest.

Although all this works sounds positive, the Red Squirrel population on Anglesey is not safe. Just over the straights in Gwyneth, here there are both Grey and Red Squirrels present. It only takes one Grey Squirrel or even a Red Squirrel which has come into contact with a Grey Squirrel to cross either the Menai Bridge or the Britannia Bridge to cause major problems. Once this individual reaches Anglesey this could introduce the fatal Squirrel pox virus, however lots of time and effort is being put in to ensure that this does not happen.

Future Projects

Although we think of the Grey Squirrel as just affecting the wildlife in the UK, it has also been shown to be causing problems on mainline Europe. The Italian government is working on grey Squirrel control as it is predicted that if nothing is done to prevent the spread, by 2100 they grey squirrel will invade parts of France and even up into Switzerland.

There are also advances closer to home, where it is suggested that there is potential vaccine that could be given to Red Squirrels that will weaken the virus.

I found this talk, given by Craig Shuttleworth of real interest and I believe that talks like this could help to change the perception of Grey Squirrel culling and help people see that there is hope for our Red Squirrel populations.

Dragons den

http://www.smarta.com/blog/2010/7/dragons-den-episode-two-reviewed/

I have to be honest, I was a bit nervous about this exercise, the name made it sound like we would be interrogated, to then be told that our business idea was never going to work. I could not have been the opposite of that.

We were in teams, most of my team members I have never works with before, which gave another great opportunity to improve my team work skills. There was a choice of business ideas we could choose from, the team I was in chose on improving Treborth and all of the team agreed upon this idea. We chose to turn Treborth into a family fun centre and a day out for both locals and tourists.

Before we fully decided on all the aspects of the business, we were asked to write down aspects of the business under different headings, including, me and my team, opportunities and risks, customers and competition, ECT. I found this task to be really helpful. Me, along with most of the team thought we had thought of most aspects of the business, however this tasks helped us to really analyse the business from many different aspects.

Through this task we decided that we would focus on entertainment, education and conservation at the centre of the improved Treborth. For this we decided that we would hold talks and seminars on a variety of things including botany, wildlife conservation and bird watching. We also decided that we would hold school groups as an education/entertaining day out.  These educational aspects were mixed with entertainment by planning to install zip wires and fun days out.

http://www.piiholozipline.com/                                            http://www.tbseurope.co.uk/bird-watching-holidays/

After establishing the main aims of the business, we were asked to film an advert for the business. For this I think our team worked really well, we decided that two people would be actors, one would finalise the script, whilst an artistically talented member of the group would design a logo and finally somebody to get to grips with and operate the camera.

Once the advert was filmed, it was time for the pitch. For this we had to pitch our business idea to the class, two of our lecturers and three dragons, who worked within the university in the business and biology departments.  Our pitch started with the advert we had created followed by each member of the group contributing to the pitch and ending with questions from the Dragons.

Although I originally dreaded this exercise I ended up really enjoying it. I feel it was very helping in the writing of the next assignment which focused on a business plan. I also felt it improved my team work and presentation skills. However, I do feel like some of the dragons thought we had more time that we did. We got asked a question about how much it would be to install the zip line and whether we knew the profit of our competitors. Although these were valid questions, as this was a self contained assignment with no preparation I do not feel like we had the time during the day to find this information out.

Why are CV’s so important

As I am coming to the end of my time at University it is time to start the task of looking for what to do next. Whether this would be a job, graduate scheme or internship I’m not sure of yet, but what I can be sure of is that I will need a Curriculum vitae (CV) to do this.

It wasn’t until I had an assignment for the Bio Enterprise and Employability module that I realised that I haven’t updated mine since 2010. Obviously in the past three years there have been some changes which are important for my CV such as finishing college and having a full time job as well as obtaining other experience and qualifications such as a driving licence.

When looking for jobs I found that most of them require you to send in a CV and covering letter as appose to filling in an online application. This means that having a good CV is critical in getting to the next stage of the application process. I found when updating my CV that I had to tailor each CV to each job application as well as creating an individual covering letter.

When searching for jobs for this assignment, I found a job on the Chester Zoo website, which were advertising for an assistant team manager for birds.  For this I created a covering letter which carefully matched the job requirements.

I found this piece of work to be really useful in updating my CV as well as improving my skills in job searching and creating a covering letter to fit that that particular job description. I believe these skills will come in handy for job searching and applying in the future.