During the summer holiday, I took part in a research placement with Dr Pallavi Anand in the School of Environment, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences at the Open University, organised by the Nuffield Foundation. The placement involved coding a MATLAB toolkit to a more accessible program such as Python that would use paleoclimate data to solve for past seawater temperature, oxygen isotope and salinity.
Category Archives: Training
Geochemistry of the deep-sea mud to understand Monsoon
Samples crushed into a fine powder.
This summer I went on a research experience placement with The Open University’s School of Environment, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences (EEES). This was a seven-week project, funded by NERC (Natural Environment Research Council).
The project was to assist in a calibration of results obtained from deep-sea core sediment samples from two different sites around the Bay of Bengal.
The calibration is part of a wider project that my colleague, Emmeline Gray is working on for her PhD. This is looking at how the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) behaved during a past warm period (similar to predicted future conditions) by observing how certain parameters in the sea floor sediments at these sites vary over time. This could give an insight as to how climate change might affect our oceans over time.
Supporting a Nuffield Research Student
Sophie Alexander, The Open University.
Over the summer, I mentored a Nuffield Research Student.
I was originally interested in getting involved in the scheme to gain experience in teaching and mentorship.
The student, Zaibaa, worked to complete a pilot study, the results of which are now actively informing my PhD research direction.
My time mentoring Zaibaa was really valuable; it challenged me to teach the scientific method of hypothesis testing to someone else.
Further to this, I gained experience in project management and how to give feedback – which was harder than I thought!
I’d highly recommend other PhD students consider designing and mentoring a Nuffield student in the future, particularly if you’re interested in gaining experience of supervising projects.
Dr Pallavi Anand (project providers) supported my work as my PhD supervisor. I’m grateful for the the opportunity and funding from Nuffield Foundation.
Fishing in the Atlantic!
Zaibaa Mehmood, Luton Sixth Form College.
During my summer holidays, after my first year at college, I took part in a Nuffield research placement at the School of Environment, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences (EEES) at the Open University.
During this placement, I worked alongside a PhD student Sophie Alexander to analyse marine sediment (or mud in simple terms).
The main aim was to investigate surface ocean productivity in the Southern and Atlantic Ocean during the early Eocene. This was broken down for me into smaller aims as below:
- Create smear slides of mud samples from different sites
- Identify components on slides using a polarising microscope
- Compare analysis of 3 different sites and decide what changes there are and how they were caused
- Use the data gained to improve knowledge of ocean productivity during a warm greenhouse period.
Supporting the digitally-engaged scholar
Professor Richard Holliman, The Open University.
Earlier this year, as part of the Open University’s 50th Anniversary celebrations, the Graduate School ran a film-making project for 50 postgraduate researchers.
As part of the follow-up to this activity I ran two workshops yesterday to explore how researchers can develop a digitally-engaged strategy for communication and engagement.
The workshops are described below, and a copy of the slides is provided. If you’re looking for online resources to support the digitally-engaged scholar, this is a good place to start:
Fairness in knowing: How should we engage with the sciences?
Professor Richard Holliman, The Open University.
This year, The Open University celebrates its 50th anniversary. Happy birthday to us!
As part of this celebration, the university is hosting an exciting programme of events and activities.
Yesterday I watched my colleague Martin Weller discuss the ongoing (and increasing influence) of openness in education. (You can access a recording of Martin’s lecture from the link in the previous sentence. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to watch the recording.)
It seems fitting, given the complementary nature of our work, that I was scheduled to deliver my inaugural lecture in this programme shortly after Martin.
Watching the lecture
If you’d like to attend the lecture on 12th March (6-7pm GMT) in person, select How to register. (It’s free to attend, but you need a ticket.)
From 5pm on the day, colleagues will be demonstrating various examples of engagement outside the lecture theatre.
To watch the lecture online, select Watch the webinar. The link will become live shortly before the start of the event. You can submit questions via email or Twitter from the same page.
The lecture will be recorded and made freely available after 12 March.
Navigating pathways to research impact
Pathways to Excellence in Public Engagement (STFC, 2018).
Recent STFC-sponsored research explored how physical science researchers in the UK are responding to the requirements to plan for, assess, monitor and report impact (Holliman et al. 2018).
The STFC-sponsored research found that the current system of Pathways to Impact Planning is struggling to consistently deliver rigorous, well-resourced programmes of impact-generating activity, including public engagement.
Upstream planning for pathways is a key requirement for improving the overall quality of the peer review system that underpins impact. How might this be achieved?
‘Navigating pathways to research impact’ is a short video offering entry-level advice on how to plan upstream for Pathways to Impact within the context of an application for research funding.
To access a copy of the transcript for the video, select: Navigating pathways to research impact’ is a short video offering entry-level advice on how to plan for Pathways to Impact (Transcript).
Searching for ‘diamonds’ in the rough
During the summer holidays I completed a five-week Nuffield Research Placement. This took place at the Open University in the School of Environment, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences (EEES).
My project was to assist in exploring the nature of gypsum crystals found in deep-sea sediments from monsoon region.
A microscope view of gypsum crystals.
My aims were to:
- Investigate ocean sediments;
- Identify crystals (quartz or something else?) and other marine, terrestrial and minerals formed during the sediment deposition, using a binocular microscope;
- Determine the relative abundance of crystals with respect to other known fragments, such as pyrite and biogenic components;
- Evaluate environmental changes related to physical weathering or any other processes operating during the sediment deposition.
This was all to help answer two related questions: 1) how were these crystals formed; and 2) what conditions were needed?
Engaged research as a route to epistemic justice
Professor Richard Holliman, The Open University.
I’ve recently had a paper published as part of a collection that explores professionalisation in science communication (Trench, 2017). In the paper, I review the purposes, definitions and criteria designed to embed ‘engaged research’ as a strategic priority with universities, and explores some of the challenges of implementation (Holliman, 2017).
I argue that surveys of academics have shown various understandings of, and attitudes to, the practices of engaged research, but also impediments to realising the aspirations it expresses.
Drawing on my experience as the academic lead for engaged research at the Open University, I go on to explore questions of professionalisation, for example, through training, support mechanisms and measures of recognition for engaged research.
I conclude the paper by arguing that, if done well, engaged research can promote epistemic justice. So what is epistemic justice, and how can engaged research deliver what Medvecky (2017) calls ‘fairness in knowing’.
Zero to hero – engaging teachers to teach network engineering
Andrew Smith, The Open University.
Since early January 2017, the School of Computing and Communications (represented by Senior Lecturer in Networking, Andrew Smith), the Open Media and Informal Learning (OMIL) Unit and the Open University’s Development Office have all been working with Cisco on a sponsored project to create content about computer networking for teachers (and school children). The content covers the national curriculum ‘computing’ domains of computer hardware and network engineering.
The resources are hosted on OpenLearn Create – the creative commons portal of the OpenLearn MOOCs.