BBC Bitesize Biology in the Boyd-Orr Building

The ninth floor of the Boyd-Orr Building was a hive of socially-distanced activity last week when Christine Carr and Kevin O’Dell from the School of Life Sciences hosted Margaret Craw, the STEM Education Officer from Education Scotland, and Ewan Torrance and David Lees from BBC Bitesize, to film laboratory experiments for National-5, Higher and Advanced Higher Biology.

Education Scotland and the BBC Bitesize team have worked together to film a number of science practical experiments with focus on NQ (National Qualifications) and secondary BGE (Broad General Education) to ensure pupils studying science subjects continue to learn during Covid restrictions.

The videos will be signposted on Scotland’s nationally available digital environment for learning, National e-Learning Offer (NeLO). 

It should be stressed that Christine and Kevin received lots of support from Boyd-Orr technical staff Nicola Smith and Tricia Davidson, and Hyndland Secondary School Biology Teacher Gillian Kennedy, as well as Amanda Rodger from Glasgow Technical Support Service and Kathleen Wallace of Renfrewshire Technical Support Service. Without the different expertise of each of these people, none of this would have been possible.

But the stars of the show, quite literally, were two of our apprentice technicians, Erin Shearer and Joss Hamilton (pictured), which was a great way to celebrate Scottish National Apprentice Week.

Life Sciences Chief Technician Christine Carr said: "The four key values of the UK Technician Commitment initiative are: Visibility, Recognition, Career Development and Sustainability - all of which the apprentices promoted with their involvement. I was really proud of how good a job they did with the filming as it was quite demanding - but that’s showbiz for you!"

Kevin O’Dell, Professor of Behaviour Genetics, said “Both Christine and I were really keen to support this, not least because we both have daughters in the age group that have been severely affected by the Covid-19 restrictions in schools. The films will bring state-of-the-art biology labs into the homes of thousands of secondary school pupils across Scotland.”

Well done to everyone involved in bringing this together to support our future students. The experiment videos will be available in the near future on the BBC Bitesize Scotland website.

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Looking for an easy way to record and track your engagement and knowledge exchange activities? The University’s Knowledge Exchange and Impact repository is now live for staff and postgraduate research students. Log your activities, from public and community engagement to knowledge exchange with industry/third sector organisations, civic and policy engagement.  

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First published: 12 March 2021

<< 15 March 2021