Dragons’ Den 2017

Friday saw the 2017 BioEmployability and Enterprise class take part in the annual Dragons’ Den.

Contrary to previous years, this Dragons’ Den wasn’t marked- it was however compulsory.

Having past years talk about how great this workshop is, the class entered with high exceptions; curious about what would await them.

The 8 hour long workshop had many different tasks that the class would have to undertake.

The Tasks

Groups:

The class was split randomly by numbers into groups. This was designed so that the likelihood of working with people they knew or were close to was limited; in order to replicate a real-life scenario.

Founding a company:

Nearly everyone in the group agreed on the idea of a reptile cafe, however one person really liked the idea of paper made from algae. The group disagreed with this on the basis that it hadn’t been done yet so not only did we not know customer demand, but we also didn’t have an idea of start-up costs.

After a fierce debate the team agreed on the snake cafe, on the grounds that algae-guy got to name the company, ”Serpents Chauds” i.e. ”Hot Snakes” in French.

Business Plan:

This involved determining the target audience, advertising, demand, and costings… thinking outside the box to everything from floor-cleaner, first-aid training and WiFi costs, right through to rent for a small-scale shop in Bangor.

The aim was to end up with a plan of costings, feasibility, potential customers, and projected profit for the first year and beyond.

This was, unsurprisingly, more complicated than expected and required a lot of work and research.

Advert:

A screenshot of the two final frames of our advert.

Great fun was had creating this, and it was actually shot in one take! Having the ability to use a live snake was wonderful and definitely a USP!

Most members took-on roles which they weren’t necessarily comfortable with in an effort to reach out of their comfort zones.

Presentation:

None of the team were particularly confident in their presentation skills, but it’s rare to find someone who is. They did their best however, and in the end The Dragons quite liked their unique idea, only to reject it as the company wouldn’t have made a profit due to the high rent in Bangor and the expensive equipment needed.

Thoughts

The workshop being non-assessed definitely made it into something more enjoyable as it took the pressure off- specifically for those groups who perhaps didn’t work as well together as others.

For me, although the grouping was random, I ended up in a team of people that I’m friends with. This made it really difficult to compromise on issues, and also escalated disagreements faster.

This did however make it easier to get on with the tasks as we already knew each other and therefore knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses- which allowed us to work efficiently when pushed for time.

Conclusion

Although the workshop was fundamental in understanding what goes into a business (and thus what goes into a business plan), it was difficult to focus for 8 hours.

There were also deadlines the day after the workshop, so the 8 hours would have been wonderful to focus on fine-tuning other important assessments.

In conclusion, I believe that the workshop, although great, would have been better at the end of the semester on one of the last days before the Christmas holidays.

 

A Life Spent ‘Avoiding’ Trees

Jim Povan from Aberystwyth University talked about his life as a reluctant population tree geneticist.

Past Work

Wayne Powell hired Jim as a research assistant at The Tree Research Group, where he went on to spend three years studying genetic variation in trees.

After a few years of skipping between jobs, the Northern Irish (N.I.) Government commissioned Jim to undertake a research project on Juniper genetics.

Juniper

Map to show the distribution of Juniper (Juniperus) throughout the British Isles. Author: Unknown

Ireland was cut off England around 16,000 BC, which in turn was cut-off from Europe ~8,000 BC. Distinct species in England travelled quickly after Ireland was cut-off. The Juniper species in Ireland are therefore expected to be genetically separate.

 

Jim’s research found three things:Junipers in Ireland are fragmented (see image left). Gene flow is expected to be broken down, which decreasespopulation levels.

• Majority is characterised by 1 of 2 genotypes
• These genotypes are geographically localised
• Juniper is most diverse in N.I.

The areas of Juniper are also clustered together by genotype, meaning that there’s less gene flow. This is characterised by a decrease in berries.

Ash

An Ash leaf. Photographer unknown

Ash Dieback, a type of fungi known as Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, causes loss of leaves and crown dieback in infected trees. It is transferable throughout populations and causes huge amounts of damage.

The research project was aimed at learning how well ash could potentially disperse in case of population troubles, if it were to be reintroduced.

In order to do this, they needed to determine how effectively Ash reproduces.

Angiosperms were used and mitochondrial DNA from the chloroplast were analysed.

Seed movement and diversity were also tracked.

Similar to Juniper, it was found that most sites in N.I. were dominated by two genotypes. However all sites belong to one big cluster and therefore all trees are closely related.

Oak

An Oak leaf photographed by S_Razvodovskij

Extensive hybridisation occurs between Quercus petraea and Q. robur. Both of these species are found in N.I., however not until after the ice-age.

Reid’s Paradox: How did these species get so far North in such a short space of time?

Originally only Q. robus was present.

1. Colonisation by Q. robus acorns
2. Pollination through Q. petraea eventually occurs
3. Hybrids cross back to one of the two species
4. Eventually, hybrids cross back to the same species

There is very little genetic difference between the hybrid and either of the two oak species.

When sampled, maternal DNA showed only that from Q. robus. 

There is therefore increased diversity in Q. robus although decreased variation within the chloroplast.

The Ghosts of Giants

An image of Pando, the largest known living organism on Earth. Photographer unknown

Asexual reproduction is a common feature among Populus.

Pando in Utah, although currently threatened,  is potentially the largest living organism on Earth.

European Aspen (Populus tremulas) is almost all the same species in N.I. They must be clones of each other, suggesting that there was once a mid-ground between the plants which then died off.

It is possible that N.I. had the largest living organism when Aspen first colonised the country, however this has since died.

How?

• Massive spread,
• followed by fragmentation
• then asexual reproduction.

If the case is true then the organism would have been at least 400 hectares.

What does this mean for me?

Listening to a few seminars on genetic variation has made me think that actually, it’s pretty interesting learning. This may be something that I consider going into in the future and, although I’ve reaffirmed the belief that climatology and geography are aspects of science that interest me, I’ve also learnt that forestry isn’t something I want to spend my life studying.

Genetics is something I’ve always been interested in but never been able to follow.

Talks of PCRs and primers, in all honesty, terrify me… but it’s refreshing to reaffirm that there’s more to genetics than lab-work.

Any topic can be interesting if you’re engaged enough in the topic.

The talk was set out in a very interesting and easy-to-follow way. Jim explained everything succinctly but comprehensively, which as someone who doesn’t study either plants or genetics, I truly appreciated.

Even if I don’t go on to work on genetics, I’ve learnt that there are specific styles of teaching that help to keep the audience engaged and entertained, which is a skill I wish to learn.

Interview Assessment: Is everything as it seems?

BioEmployablity and Enterprise undertook a workshop today in a bid to mimic a real-life assessment centre.

To keep things as real as possible, the students were not informed of the content of the workshop before turning up.

The students turned up to PJ Hall to see blocks of tables spread out throughout the room, where they then sat down. They were then asked to perform a series of tasks.

To mimic a real-life scenario the students were told that they were competing for a chance to meet Bangor alumni, Ross Piper, who works on documentaries with the BBC.

A diagram showing the six main features of an assessment centre; group exercises, in-tray exercises, psychometric tests, the social side, presentations and interviews. Photo credit: unknown.

The Tasks

The students had to line up alphabetically by first name without talking to each other.

One of the coordinators then walked round and assigned everyone a number from 1-19. These corresponded to a table number, designed to group random people together.

Interviews

Mock interviews then took place, where student’s role-played as different positions. Each member of the group took turns partaking as different roles. Everyone got interviewed.

Positions included time-keeper, interviewer, interviewee, and scribe.

The groups, after giving feedback to those being interviewed, then decided who the best interviewee was.

A photo showing the set-up of the interviews undertaken. One interviewee facing four interviewers, each with different roles. Photo credit: unknown.

Psychometric Testing

Individuals then took a psychometric test to determine what sort of person they were in the workplace, what sort of environment they would be best suited for, and who they would work better with.

Results ranged from chair to plant; someone with strong leadership skills to someone who listens and offers advise of their own.

The emails

Each group was then given a series of ‘fake’ emails and told they had to pick the top three and organise them in order of importance.

A spokesperson of the group then stood at the front of the hall and read their top three emails, including the reasons why the group considered them to be of high importance.

There were no correct answers to this task, however most groups had the same top two emails, whereas the third choice varied based on personal opinion.

Explanations

It was then explained to the cohort that the people who were picked best at interviews, and then stood up to present the group’s thoughts on the last task were the ones who would be meeting with Ross Piper.

After letting the student’s know how they were assessed, in terms of engagement, enthusiasm and overall contribution, they were dismissed.

Conclusions

Although the workshop was valuable to understanding the sorts of tasks which may occur during an assessment centre, and helped me to feel more prepared in case I get invited to one, it felt as though we were a lot more unprepared than we would be in a real-life scenario.

4 hours without a break is unrealistic, especially when we weren’t told it was 4 hours and most of us had no food.

When I left for coffee and returned to see people standing at the front, I felt penalised for getting a drink.

I also felt like people who have anxiety were penalised for that, as although I was chosen from the interview section, I would not have voluntarily stood at the front without having a panic attack from the public speaking, which meant that I would never have had the chance to meet Ross Piper.

Overall, although I feel more prepared for any future assessment centres and interviews, I’m also more inclined to think that I will penalised for my mental health in the future.

2017 Careers Cafe

Today BioEmployability and Enterprise students had a chance to talk to five alumni of Bangor University and ask them questions about their past, current, and future career paths.

Beth

Photo of Snowdonia by an unknown author

Studied bsc Zoology before undertaking her masters in Wetland Science at Bangor University. She graduated in 2015 and has undertaken three jobs since then.

• Wetland Consultant, helping with field sampling
• Snowdonia Society, conservation and woodland management
• Snowdonia National Park, senior warden, Snowdon partnership management

Beth currently works with Snowdonia National Park as a Ecosystems and Climate Change officer.

Nia

Studied Zoology with Marine Biology for 3 years before undertaking a funded masters in Ecology.

Logo of the North Wales Wildlife Trust

During her masters, Nia volunteered with North Wales Wildlife Trust (NWWT). When they became short of volunteers, Nia took on extra work and when leaving her masters got offered a paid job. The NWWT was absorbed by Living Seas when they became short of money and Nia got a full-time paid position as a manager.

She stays in the same organisation but takes on different projects and finds funding for them. Conservation jobs are few and far between, so she loves the chance to undertake differing projects.

 

John

• bsc Zoology with Marine Biology.
• Honours on salt water crocodile feeding behaviour.
• Offered a job working with crocs, but turned it down as prefers short-term research jobs.
• Research assistant in Bangor for 3 years but left as didn’t enjoy the work.
• 6 month summer job for Natural Resources Wales (NRW).
• Offered a permanent job placement shortly after with Welsh Water.

A screenshot of the recent commercial for Welsh Water, featuring their catchphrase.

John runs a team of 6-8 scientists and his work sponsor PhD’s and offers a graduate recruitment program.

When interviewing people, he checks to see if they’ve pulled out specific phrases from the job description and scores them on a points-based-system. Giving more than one example for each gives you higher points.

Graham

Bangor University Logo

Studied biology for 3 years then went on to do a PGCE course at Bangor in Outdoor & Biology .

This degree has allowed him to travel and work across the globe, including in places such as Australia, Canada and South Africa. He’s also worked across the UK, but he now teaches the Outdoor & Science course at Bangor University.

Teaching allowed travel, fieldwork and education, and it’s not restricted to Primary or Secondary education.

Education is a political football – Graham French

Rhys

Studied Zoology with Marine Zoology and undertook a masters in Molecular Biology. He currently works as an Animal Care Technician in the University’s animal labs, looking after the animals and helping to set-up experiments for BSc/MSc students.

90% poo, 10% science – Rhys Morgan

During the duration of his masters he worked with a PhD student in the animal lab, where he learnt and volunteered in the animal room.

Image of an animal technician cleaning out a tank. Photographer unknown.

When interviewed he was questioned on what would happen if a pump broke in the aquarium. Instead of calling maintenance he went into great detail of how he’d fix it; Rhys believes this gave him the upper-hand.

Common Themes

• Do what you love
• Spread your boundaries
• Volunteer
• Personalise your CV
• Adapt & change

Conclusions

The careers workshop was really helpful in quenching some of my fears about post-uni life. I thought there was a lot more competition with getting paid jobs as a graduate, and was unaware that being a committee member on a society counted a volunteering.

I was unaware of the amount of interesting things that I can actually put on my C.V.

Volunteering with Dig For Shakespeare? Archaeological experience.
Christmas job at Matalan? Experience negotiating with difficult customers.
Air Cadets? Experience caring for young children in unusual situations.

I also realised that teaching may be something I’m interested in. I love teaching children, and have done in the past, but I never considered it as a career choice until now. If I still have the opportunity to travel and partake in fieldwork then that could be a viable option for my future.

What now?

Although I’m still incredibly unsure about my future, I have decided that this isn’t the end of my education and if an opportunity arises for me to become a teacher, then I wouldn’t necessarily turn it down, especially if it gives me the opportunity to travel.

I also know that I’ve improved my interview technique, and I’ve certainly (alongside advice from the C.V. workshop) fine-tuned my C.V. Hopefully this, alongside the rest of the module, I’ve improved my employability and gained some valuable contacts.

 

Educating Africa: How Conservation Helps

Susanne Shultz, from the University of Manchester spoke to us with a talk titled ‘Shifting Baselines, Refugees, and Conservation: can we identify and predict declines?’

The Problem

In modern day society, there is a big and increasing extinction risk.

Although there are more areas in the world being protected, there is still an acceleration in extinction rates.

Most impact on animals occurs where there are more humans, however we protect the areas where we aren’t, such as temperature extremes, mountainous areas, and areas with low water supply, as it’s more convenient for us.

There is a heavy bias towards the areas we protect.

“We protect species in places we don’t want to be, as opposed to where they [animals] want to be.” – Susanne Shultz

The Science Part

Dr. Daniel Pauly described ‘Shifting Baseline Syndrome‘ (SBS) which suggests that ‘something good’ decreases overtime.

Over-fishing leads to population collapse, which means less fish over time. The first generation doesn’t notice a change. Generation n notices the change and adjusts the amount caught. Generation n+1 leads a conservation effort and changes the baseline, increasing ‘something good’.

Most conservation efforts use SBS, and work to restore the baseline.

European Bison

Refugee Species Concept (RSC) is when a species is pushed out of it’s optimal/historical habitat.

A European Bison (Bison bonasus) found in woodland Photography Credit: Unknown

European Bison are incorrectly managed as the last population of them were found in forested areas.

Morphological and historical data points to the species being grazing animals, however they are kept in less-than optimal conditions, which may affect their long-term health and reproduction.

Susanne argues that this may be a worldwide problem.

Case Study

Farm land has been built on the natural habitat of the Cape Mountain Zebra.

Historically the zebra has had large-scale population declines followed by recovery. This recovery has mostly been due to one isolated population being conserved in optimum habitat, allowing reproduction at a healthy rate.

Cape Mountain Zebra (Equus zebra zebra) Photography Credit: Shutterstock

High quality grassland is linked to populations with better population performance.

Scat was collected to test for diet, stress, parasites, and hormones; increased habitat quality leads to decreased sex ratio bias, physiological challenges, and less male competition.

Network structure was compromised in areas where there was male bias, such as areas with decreased grassland.

Presenting the physiological information to the range owners proved fruitless, however hormonal information struck a cord within the owners, leading some to better their conservation efforts.

Serious research needs to be undertaken into which areas are best for the animal, and also what is historically best for them. Where they are now may not be optimal for them and may not be best to achieve reproductive success and population expansion.

What does this mean for me?

It never occurred to me that conservation is more than protection. It was interesting to find out that the case studies I read about as a child aren’t always what they seem.

Although the Cape Mountain Zebra was brought back from the edge of extinction by humans, we’re also detrimentally affecting the welfare of individual zebras and populations on the whole.

I think conservation may be something I’d like to work on in the future; helping to better conservation efforts. It would be interesting to determine if the same fallback is occurring in reptile conservation as well.

Only issue is that conservation is an incredibly competitive occupation, and one that I have no previous experience in.

When I came to university my main aim was to study conservation of reptiles and amphibians, unfortunately however you cannot take conservation and herpetology, and so I had to chose.

Herpetology undoubtedly won-out, which leaves me with a gap in my education.

The wisest thing to do (I believe) would be to either undergo a masters in conservation, or on conservation.

Hopefully I can achieve this by studying the effect of relocation on Russel pit vipers in India.

 

 

 

C.V. Guidelines: What Not To Do

Today saw the 2017 Bio-Enterprise and Employability class in a workshop on developing your C.V.

Unsurprisingly, we have a lot to work on. C.V.’s should now be called just that, as opposed to the ‘old fashioned’ ways of Curriculum Vitae.

What actually is a C.V.?

C.V. is a 1-2 page document, portraying the best parts of you to a potential future employer; it’s what you submit before you get to the interview stage. The very first impression of you.

There are specific sub-headings which should be included, such as personal profile, work history, education, interests, skills and referees.

Personal Profile

This should personal contact information and also what you would describe yourself as (artistic license is allowed, so long as you don’t lie).

Work History

No one will read the entirety of your C.V. if you list all the work experience you did during high school. Everyone has worked a Christmas job in retail- so why was yours special? If it wasn’t, then don’t include it.

Education

Although GCSE’s are important, they should not be listed on a C.V., but placed into a paragraph with only specific grades (important to the role you’re applying for) noted. Otherwise just 10 GCSE grades A*-B, is fine.

Grades should also be listed in reverse chronological order, so your current study is the first thing an employer sees.

Interests

Interests aren’t interesting unless they’re unusual. There’s no point in me noting that I’m a Grade 5 for clarinet, unless I can explain why that’s important to the role, however being an Air Cadet for 7 years can tell someone a lot more about me.

Skills

These are things that you’re good at, such as leadership, communication, dedication, creativity etc. Don’t lie; if you’re not good at something, or you can’t provide a recent and relevant example as to why you’re good at it, then don’t put that skill in.

Referees

More than one reference should be supplied, and writing ‘references available on request‘ is not suitable. References should also be tailed to each individual application and the title, relationship and basic contact details (i.e. email address) should be given.

General Rules

Spelling and grammatical errors warrant an immediate refusal, as does using the word ‘I’, as this is considered shoddy workmanship.

If you split anything into columns, make sure the format is uniform throughout the document. Make it look you care about your C.V. as much as you care about getting the job.

C.V.s can be up to two pages long, although no longer, so be sure you make it count.

A C.V. is important, so it make it look just that.

Was this helpful to me?

In short, yes.

Although the workshop could have been made more interesting and tailored to biological sciences, it did include a lot of information that I wasn’t aware of before.

Judging by the fact I had to redo most my C.V., I’d say the information I was given made it worth attending.

The assignment attached to this blog post was also incredibly informative. Although the lecture itself was hard to follow, and seemed to be filled with a lot of irrelevant information, it’s a valuable skill to know how to write and present yourself in both a C.V. and a covering letter.

I think what would have been useful was to explain the difference between a C.V. and an ‘academic’ C.V. i.e. one aimed at applying for PhDs or MScs.

Update:

Since writing this blog post, I’ve been complimented on my C.V. during an interview, specifically on the layout and the information included within.

Disclaimer: All screenshots are from my own personal C.V. If you like what you see, please contact me.

 

I Don’t Baleen It!

Natalie Cooper, from the National History Museum (NHM) in London, came to Bangor University on Friday to talk about macroevolution & macroecology.

Natalie works on a number of different areas including phylogenetic comparative methods and statistics.

She’s also able to work with over 80 million specimens, including 175,000+ herps.

Currently she’s working on tracking Hope, the new Blue Whale’s, movements before she beached herself.

How?

The baleen of a blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) Photographer unknown.

Isotopes can be extracted from the whale’s baleen and can be used to track where (roughly) the whale travelled at which points in her life.

This is due to different isotopes being present in different parts of the world, with higher isotope levels being found in warmer oceans (although this changes seasonally).

As a whale’s baleen is constantly growing, the museum have managed to collect around 8 years worth of data.

Why?

Surprisingly from the data, it was detected that the whale changed cycles towards the end of its life and stayed in warmer waters for longer, possibly looking for food.

This implies that she was potentially breast-feeding meaning that the whale’s DNA could still be out in the world somewhere.

Using imaginary data and creating statistical models, it is possible to work out where the whale may have spent the last few years of her life.

This is important as it allows us to understand more about the world’s largest sea animal, and it also helps us to understand why whale’s beach themselves, perhaps preventing more deaths in the future.

How did this influence me?

Hearing from Natalie made me realise that working in a museum is a really smart way to be able to gather data quick and efficiently.

Although museum data has drawbacks, such as locale and I.D. inaccuracies, more data is available in a shorter time period.

The NHM also has on-going schemes for enthusiastic students so it may be possible for me to work with them in order to further my studies.

Conclusion

I believe this is something to look into further as Natalie is able to work with a wide range of different animal groups and species, network completely within the zoological field and have a large range of morphometric data at her fingertips in order to study further.

Judging by how elusive herps can be in the wild, museum specimens could prove invaluable to any data-set to help boost numbers and make results more reliable.

A photograph taken of some of the Singapore Natural History Museum herpetological specimens. Photographer unknown.