engineering sciences

Improving Pastoral Care Provision for Chemical Engineering Students

Fiona A Wilkie Leave a Comment

THE TEAM

Staff: Isobel Mackay, Beth Hills, Seema Walker (and support from Katie Bretherick our student advisor)

Lead Students: Yi Hui Loh, Adam Izham

Support Students; Lance Simanjoentak, Rebekah Goldwag

DEPARTMENT

Chemical Engineering

WHAT HAPPENED?

In recent years the Department of Chemical Engineering has received large numbers of Extenuating Circumstances claims with students referring to poor mental health and wellbeing. Issues with students’ mental health were also raised in the ASER. When discussed in the SSCC student reps mentioned that they are comfortable discussing academic matters with personal tutors, but not anything regarding mental health. In response to this the department have put in a variety of extra provisions, including training several staff members as Mental Health First Aiders and offering wellbeing drop-in sessions with these staff members as well as directly with the departmental tutors. These drop-in sessions are very rarely attended by students so it is clear that this type of provision is also not one that the students are comfortable using, and we want to use this project to determine how we can help students more effectively. In order to improve the mental health and wellbeing of students in the department of Chemical Engineering it was decided to run a Change Makers project to explore how best we can provide pastoral care to our students, in ways that the students will find the most effective and valuable. There were two key sections to this project. Firstly, for the student partners to design and run a series of focus groups to canvas the opinions of their peers on the wellbeing provision already in place in the department, and what other provisions they would benefit from. Secondly, the staff and students on the project to get together and analyse the anonymised responses of the focus groups to create a series of recommendations for the department. These recommendations will be presented to the Departmental leadership team and where appropriate acted on and implemented in future academic years, led by the departmental tutor.

 

2022_CE_Mental_Health_Change_Makers_Report_Isobel Mackay

WHAT ADVICE OR ENCOURAGEMENT WOULD YOU GIVE TO SOMEONE THINKING OF DOING A CHANGEMAKERS PROJECT?

This is a really great scheme and excellent way to get students involved with decision making at a higher level in their department. Students were really excited about being asked to be involved with this project to be able to influence their future, but also as it showed the department cares about their voice.

Investigating the usage of Labster and its future implications for industry and academia

Fiona A Wilkie Leave a Comment

THE TEAM

Staff leads: Dr Rana Khalife, Dr Chika Nweke

Student lead: Pierre Springuel

 

DEPARTMENT

Biochemical Engineering

 

WHAT HAPPENED?

Research has shown that the potential skills gap in engineering, exacerbated by the pandemic, has started to show when graduates go out into engineering industries (Hou 2020). Final year students in the department have also expressed worries via personal tutoring sessions about how the gap in lab skills will impact their employability and this has also been discussed in staff meetings, together with resulting increased burden on careers support from the departmental careers liaison officer and the UCL Engineering Careers team. It is holistically believed that the outcome of this project should not only help current and former students but can also help to alleviate some of the pressures on staff and industry. In understanding the impact of Labster, a number of stakeholders will benefit. If proved successful, the tool can be applied to other modules in the department with minimal staff training, meaning that academic and teaching staff can use it to train UG, PGT and PGR students. The tool can also be used in the training of industrial delegates who receive training from our department via MBIs (Modular Training for the Bioprocess Industries). The results of this study may also highlight some limitations of the tool, which can be fed back to the company that designed Labster, who the UCL Digital Education team have built a relationship with.

 

WHAT ADVICE OR ENCOURAGEMENT WOULD YOU GIVE TO SOMEONE THINKING OF DOING A CHANGEMAKERS PROJECT?

Have a good timetable for the project, make sure you would be able to give the survey/do workshop before term end. Even ask the students for feedback on the project.

BARC0132 Indeterminate structures – Developing student’s intuition on structural engineering

Fiona A Wilkie Leave a Comment

THE TEAM

Staff Lead and Module Coordinator: Fabio Freddi
Lead student: Marjorie Luque
Support students: Cying Wang, Max Ostroverhy

DEPARTMENT

Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering (CEGE)

WHAT HAPPENED?

This project aimed to offer academic support to students in order to improve their learning experience in relation to indeterminate structures, which involved topics that were typically perceived as complex. The main advantage of the project was the involvement of Y3 students, who having faced the same challenges the previous year, were able to understand where the difficulties might arise and based on that advise Y2 students. This also meant that Y2 students were exposed to a variety of teaching styles from a student perspective. Through these sessions which focused on practical work, Y2 students cleared out their doubts and could keep engaged in the module. Also, the cooperative environment created an effective communication channel between Y3 students, Y2 students, and teaching staff.

WHAT ADVICE OR ENCOURAGEMENT WOULD YOU GIVE TO SOMEONE THINKING OF DOING A CHANGEMAKERS PROJECT?

Considering the challenges I faced last year while undertaking the module, this project focused on developing the worked examples in a very detailed manner while including useful tips that could help students improve their understanding of the topics. In order to make the project successful, it was key to prepare the sessions in advance and to organise weekly meetings with the teaching staff.