The Society of Pharmacology and Physiology (SOPP) recently ran a workshop targeted at first year students at Medway School of Pharmacy to help them progress with their Ileum Lab Reports. This is a piece of coursework students studying both Pharmacy and Pharmacology are set in the first term and helps develop key skills in understanding the mechanisms of how a drug can affect a physiological component.
The workshop covered a number of topics that the committee felt they had problems with during conducting their own lab reports the year before. Firstly, a presentation was given that covered how to structure a scientific lab report, they then progressed onto interpreting and visualising data; how Microsoft Excel can be used to produce detailed concentration response curves. They also explained that in the discussion of the report, they can highlight how the results compare to expectations. After the presentation students broke up into smaller groups so members of the committee could help them with more individual and unique issues. There was extremely positive feedback, as they were able to quickly solve issues that could have taken hours to work out alone.
The first workshop was run on Thursday 12th November and the Society had over 35 people attend, after receiving positive feedback from the event the committee decided to run the workshop again on Tuesday 17th November for students that were unable to attend or had not heard about the first event. This had a turnout of over 15 people and so the committee are extremely happy with the outcome of the first workshop they have run and the interest they have had in the society. They now have a member count of 76 in the first year of running and hope to keep welcoming new members.
Plans are underway to run a workshop covering how to prepare for the upcoming January exams along with a number of socials as students’ approach Christmas.