Zak has been working as an Outreach Ambassador for one year and has just finished his first year of undergraduate study in Accounting and Finance at the University of Kent, Canterbury campus.
With the university term now complete, the summer period for the ambassador team was going to be a busy one with a range of events being held at schools across Kent and on the Canterbury and Medway campuses.
The UKAT Year 8 Research Activity was one of the events I supported at the University of Kent’s sponsored schools: Brompton Academy and Chatham Grammar School For Girls. This activity interested me because I had previously studied Geography at A-level and, despite being an Accounting and Finance student, I still hold a real interest in all aspects of geography. Therefore taking part in this event meant that I was able to use my prior experience to aid students in developing their understanding of a highly contemporary issue, which impacts all people globally.
The event spanned over five days across both schools and held fascinating lectures and mini activities on the matter of wildlife conservation. The activities culminated in the students producing a poster in groups within their classrooms which they then had to present in front of the class. The quality of the presentations and the information they had accumulated throughout the day was taken into account and they were then judged by the ambassadors. The winning groups from each classroom then presented in front of the rest of their peers from the other classes, and the final winners of these presentations were awarded a day trip to the University of Kent for their efforts throughout the day.
Each day began with meeting the ambassador team, discussing the day’s itinerary and how we would assist the students throughout. Following on from this, an introductory lecture was delivered by two PhD conservationists from the University of Kent. This provided students with the information they required surrounding the key threats that face animals such as Rhinos, Pangolins and Elephants and why these animals are involved in the illegal wildlife trade.
After the morning lectures we put the students through their paces with research activities that allowed them to develop their understanding of Rhinos, Pangolins and Elephants. During this activity the students discovered more about what threats faced by these wild animals. Students from both schools actively engaged with the tasks and developed some fantastic pieces of work that would contribute to their presentations later on in the day. After a short break the students had another lecture which presented the origins of the demand and supply of the illegal wildlife trade. This left many students in awe and pondering the ethical boundaries of some of their favourite brands, such as Nestlé, as the students were shown a Greenpeace video which sought to shed light on the problem of the exploitation of palm oil through the destruction of the Sumatran rainforest in Indonesia. This led the students to realise the extent of the crisis that currently streams along parts of Sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Asia.
This stemmed onto the final part of the day as the students were now creating their posters. Within these posters the students had to include a campaign which aimed to mitigate either the supply or the demand of the illegal wildlife trade, and come up with some unique methods to aid the prevention of this trade. One example was ecotourism, which provides locals with jobs to protect the animals and run tours for tourists. In addition the students were encouraged to write down their sources on their posters, this introduced the concept of referencing and only bolstered their skills which they had developed throughout the day.
Overall, the activity was an eye opener to all of the students that took part at both schools. As the event was being run for the first time, it was a bit daunting to see whether it would go well, however, at both schools the event was run fantastically and the ambassadors including myself highly enjoyed what went on. Not only did the ambassadors enjoy it, but the students who took part were left with newfound research skills which they could then apply to any subject they are curious about.