Brittany Harrison, a Life Sciences undergraduate student, has been running STEM projects in the SLS teaching labs over the summer. Here she tells us more:

'Every Wednesday throughout August, 25 year 9 and 10 students from secondary schools across Nuneaton, Rugby and Bedworth have joined me in the Life Sciences department at the University of Warwick to complete STEM CREST awards- the only nationally recognised award by the British Science association for STEM enrichment outside of school curriculum. Throughout my summer, I have been an intern for ThinkHigher, a project ran in collaboration with The University of Warwick, Coventry University, local authorities and local FE colleges. ThinkHigher has provided me with a platform to offer these young people the facilities and learning space to expand on their own scientific interests. We have been carrying out investigations in the undergraduate laboratories related to health and disease, which has involved microbiology techniques that I didn’t get to practice until the second year of my degree, as well as interactive tours around the WMG engineering workshops and the Phytobiology facility.

Science is an eternally incomplete topic, and I feel that this fact is only truly understood when exploring science in a practical and creative way, as opposed to text-book learning in schools. Running the CREST awards has provided these young people with a mature learning experience which much more truly represents the everyday life of a scientist.'