My experience of the days
Day 1 – Spiderman and Polymers
The day started with an introductory game ran by Jonathan Heron, which was
very effective in breaking the ice between all of the people who participated in
the day.
This was followed by a fifteen minute clip from the 2002 Spiderman film of the
scenes where Peter Parker first realises his superpowers. I believe that the
film was a very effective way of setting the scene and therefore both people
who had and hadn’t seen Spiderman could understand the context of the day.
After this, Elena then went through a PowerPoint presentation on the
chemistry of polymers, which included: the history of polymers, how polymers
are formed and the appearance of polymers in film such as cellulose film in
Inglorious basterds. Elena’s presentation was very informative and contained
a lot of interesting information that would not be taught during lectures and
therefore I thoroughly enjoyed it.
This was then followed by a discussion with another person from the group
about what we had found most interesting about the presentation. The part I
found most interesting was learning how developments in polymer chemistry
coincided with the outbreak of WW2 as the need for new materials
dramatically increased the funding and the research in materials chemistry.
After this discussion, we did a hands-on activity organised by Elena that
allowed us to understand better the use of polymers in hair gel and then we
had lunch together.
In the afternoon, we had a guided tour around a polymer lab by a PhD
student. I found the tour particularly interesting as I am strongly considering
doing a PhD after I finish my degree and therefore any opportunity that I get to
make my decision more informed is fantastic. After the lab we went back to
the original room and had a discussion about setting up an experiment with an
unlimited budget about testing some of the science behind sci-fi films. I was
paired with an economics student and therefore it was very interesting to see
how someone who studies a completely different subject approached the
task. Our idea was about testing if any material could be as strong and flexible
as Supermans suit.
Day 2 – Antibiotic resistance and War of the worlds
The second day started in similar fashion to the first day, with Jonathan
running an introductory game to introduce the people who were there on the
first day to those who did not attend the first day.
Following the introductory game, Elena showed a ten minute clip from the
2005 War of the Worlds film, which was followed by a ten minute clip of the
1938 War of the worlds radio play. I really enjoyed the radio play as it is a very
innovative way of expressing the War of the Worlds story. I believe that it is a
masterpiece by Orson Welles and I found it fascinating that it caused mass
panic when it was first played, as people listening to it on the radio believed
that it was actually happening.
Elena then went through a PowerPoint presentation, which included how
antibiotic resistance occurs and the ideas behind War of the Worlds including
the author H.G. Wells views on colonialism and imperialism.
The part that I found most interesting was a talk from antibiotic action that
Elena included in the PowerPoint. Antibiotic action outlined the potential future
problems caused by overuse of antibiotics and not enough research into new
antibiotics. After the PowerPoint we had a discussion about the future
problems of antibiotic resistance and lunch.
In the afternoon we had a tour around a chemical biology lab by a PhD
student. I found this extremely interesting as I had never been in a biology lab
before and therefore I learned what the differences between a chemistry and
biology lab are. During the tour around the lab, I was shown how bacteria are
grown.
After the tour around the lab we went back to the original room and had a
discussion about what we had learned over the past two days, which was a
very effective way of summarising all of the main things that we had learned.
I found the two days extremely engaging and I thought that it was fantastic to
be able to learn in an interdisciplinary environment. Where all disciplinary
boundaries were removed and the only goal was to educate the students with
interesting information.