SEEN 2.10

Dear all,

This is the final edition of SEEN before the Easter break. There will be just 2 editions after Easter, so send me your links!

Judith

Careers

On behalf of the University I would like to thank all the students who attended the Biological Sciences Careers Day in February and to those who completed the feedback survey. A report has now been completed and sent to Faculty with our findings. This information is invaluable as it is only by knowing your views and opinions that we can continue to provide worthwhile and quality services.

In total 195 individuals attended events throughout the day with 33% providing feedback by 5^th March deadline. We are pleased to see the event has been of real value to our students with 94% of survey respondents stating the event “has helped me to think more about my future”. Additionally we have found some interesting comments on the format of the events (mostly relating to timing and venues) which will be taken into consideration for future planning alongside ideas to enhance individual presentations.

A report has been submitted to the Faculty for consideration of future sessions however initial comments suggest that due to the success of the event and the positive feedback received this will hopefully become an annual event within Biological Sciences.

Many Thanks,

Richard Carruthers

Specialist Practitioner

University of Southampton

Darwin reading group

A reminder that it is not too late to join us! We have so far read 6 chapters and will read chapters 7, 8 and 9 over Easter, to discuss on Tuesday 17^th April at 1pm in 2/2043 (L/R F). That gives you a whole month to catch up! The students who are attending are greatly enjoying it. We have all agreed that Darwin’s writing is charming!

In the news

PhD student Louise Fairless thought some of you may be interested in the following talk:

Saturday 17^th March

An illustrated talk

Ecology and Conservation of Bumblebees

Speaker : Dr Claire Carvell

Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH)

Longstock Village Hall 7:00pm

Admission free, tea and coffee will be provided from 6:30pm

Claire will explain Bumblebees’ life cycle, habitat requirements and probable reasons for declines and she will go on to discuss how farmland habitats can be restored to help Bumblebees and particularly the work of CEH.

Photo competition

The STEM team at the Higher Education Academy invites students from the STEM disciplines to submit aphotograph or digital image that captures the essence/excitement of your subject and might motivate others to study it.All submissions will be displayed at the HEA STEM Annual Conference in poster format and the images will be judged by the delegates of the STEM conference.

The winner will be awarded a £250 book token and invited to attend the Higher Education Academy National Annual Conference in July 2012 (all expenses paid), where the prize will be awards to the winner and the other discipline winners at the conference dinner.

Submissions must be emailed to karen.fraser@heacademy.ac.uk by 1 April 2012 (extended deadline).

I found this song on youtube for my first years, it’s about the competition between barnacles on a rocky shore. Makes me think that we should have an Ecology song competition!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rpWtXWNI-c

These 3 short films are also about interspecific interactions

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__ECM-DtDkU

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uw532SnTVnc&feature=related

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAcK5QNBo-o&feature=related

For those of you who haven’t been watching, the BBC series Orbit: Earth’s extraordinary journey, is definitely worth a watch. All 3 programmes are available on iPlayer

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/search?q=Orbit%3A%20Earth’s%20Extraordinary%20Journey