Slides from a talk to be given at the "Making the Most of Your ERA Licence" event (BAFTA, 7th October 2015).

1. Using Broadcast Media inTeaching:
An example from the biosciences
Making the Most ofYour ERA Licence
Dr Chris Willmott
Dept of Molecular
and Cell Biology
University of Leicester
cjrw2@le.ac.uk

2. Outline of session
• Examples uses of TV in teaching
• Biology on the Box
• Searching for materials

3. Using TV for University Teaching
Harry and Paul’s Story of the Twos
http://bobnational.net/record/230056

4. Overview
• Multimedia (esp visual media) can be integrated
into teaching in variety of ways
Use of
broadcast clips
Video
production
News
analysis

5. A Child Against All Odds
http://bobnational.net/record/230327
Example uses: (1) Documentary

6. Die Another Day
http://bobnational.net/record/230324
http://bobnational.net/record/220597
Example uses: (2) Scene-setter

7. Example (2): Context and use
• Introduction to Year 2 lecture on Gene Therapy
• Used precisely because it is so wrong
• Set scene for more accurate discussion on the
approach (including another clip, from Horizon)

8. Holby City: “Better The Devil You Know”
http://bobnational.net/record/318451
Example uses: (3a) Discussion

9. • Pete has kidney failure and is being offered the last
opportunity of a transplant, using a kidney from a pig
• What ethical arguments might there be for/against
this operation?
• What scientific concerns might there be about an
operation of this sort?
• If you were Pete’s friend
would you suggest that he
accepts the doctor’s offer?
Why/why not?
Example uses: (3a) Discussion

10. Example (3b): Context and use
• Video from Brainiac: Science abuse
• Used in a Year 1 tutorial on Experimental Design

11. • Students watch short clip describing an experiment to
investigate whether you can smell if someone is afraid
• Having watched the clip, they discuss:
- what was good about the design of the expt?
- what was wrong with the experiment?
http://tinyurl.com/terrorface1
Example (3b): Discussion

12. Brainiac Science Abuse: The Smell of Fear
http://bobnational.net/record/226469
Example uses: (3b) Discussion

13. • watch this short clip describing an experiment to
investigate whether you can smell if someone is afraid
• having watched the clip, consider:
- what was good about the design of the expt?
- what was wrong with the experiment?
http://tinyurl.com/terrorface1
Example (3b): Discussion

14. Good aspects of Brainiac expt?
• included a negative control (no fear, no sport)
• all subjects carried out their activity for same time
• all subjects were “sniffer” by same person
• all subjects were same gender
• …but little else is good

15. What was wrong with this expt?
• only one “sniff-er”
• only three “sweat-ers”
• was not the same person on crane/running/relaxing
• distance nose-to-armpit not same in all cases
• may have been other explanations for the observed
differences, e.g.
• natural body odour differences between the three
• use of deodorant
• eating of smelly foods
• olfactory fatigue/adaptation may have occurred

16. Design a better version
• work with those sitting near you to design a
better experiment looking into whether it is possible
to smell fear
http://tinyurl.com/armpitsniffing1

17. A more scientific approach
Prehn-Kristensen et al (2009), PLoS ONE 4(6): e5987
http://tinyurl.com/anxietypaper

18. The Cell (2): The Chemistry of Life
http://bobnational.net/record/222440
Example uses: (4) Full programme

19. Example (4): Context and use
• Year 1 double lecture session (video lasts 60 mins)
• A beautiful walk through the history of expt that
identified DNA as the molecule of inheritance
• Students provided with a structured worksheet to
aid note-taking during episode

20. Example (4): Full programme
• Difficult to fit full episode into lecture slot?
• Not best use of F2F time?
• BoB raises potential for requiring students to watch
programme before lecture or tutorial
• Flipped classroom
• “Viewing lists” as well as “reading lists” for module

21. Biology on the Box
• Recommendations for TV (and radio) footage that
can used for enriching bioscience teaching
• Primarily designed for use in conjunction with “Box
of Broadcasts” – subscription service
• Programme tips equally valid without BoB, just
harder to get hold of
• A collaborative project
- students as producers
- different institutions

22. BoB
• Fantastic tool, not perfect
• Key weakness = discovery/rediscovery
• Additional resource for sharing best practice
- more metadata & keywords
- scope to describe usage of resource
• Hence launched Biology on the Box

23. Biology on the Box
• Biologyonthebox.wordpress.com
• Started September 2014
• Post of various styles

24. Various styles
Awareness of
digital availability…
… plus notes

25. Various styles
Clip within programme…
… plus structured
activities

26. Various styles
News story
News overview

27. Various styles
Radio
Re-posting

28. Posts by Students AudioVisuals In
the Disciplines
(AVID)

29. Posts by Colleagues

30. Biology on the Box
• Biologyonthebox.wordpress.com
• Started September 2014
• Post of various styles
• Posts by students
• Posts from other academics

31. [Other discipline] on the Box
• Other subject areas starting to develop similar sites
• e.g. Englishonthebox.wordpress.com

33. Acknowledgements
• University of Leicester Teaching Enhancement Fund
• Thanks to authors of blog posts

34. Any Questions?
E-mail: cjrw2@le.ac.uk
Twitter: cjrw
Slideshare: cjrw2
Delicious: chriswillmott
Blogs: www.bioethicsbytes.wordpress.com
www.biologyonthebox.wordpress.com
www.biosciencecareers.wordpress.com
www.lefthandedbiochemist.wordpress.com