Posted by David in Natural Sciences on June 25, 2015
I was lucky enough to stumble across a really nice house with a great landlord in my first year (after being in halls in my foundation year), resulting in me staying in the same place for my entire degree. This has made it all the more nostalgic (and arduous) now that it’s time to move […]
Posted in Future, Stress | Tagged I Science, Interdisciplinary Science, ISci, microcontrollers, Moving house, natsci, Natural Sciences, open days
Posted by David in Natural Sciences on February 22, 2015
After a few months of research and deliberation, I’m happy to say I’ve accepted an offer for a PhD starting in September. Doing a PhD after completing an undergraduate course is becoming increasingly common in steps towards a career in both industry and academia, and generally consists of 3-4 years spent on a very specific […]
Posted in Career, Future, Postgraduate Study | Tagged I Science, Interdisciplinary Science, ISci, natsci, Natural Sciences, PhD, postgraduate study, student blog |
Posted by David in Natural Sciences on January 22, 2015
The second term is now well underway and it already feels considerably different to before Christmas. With microcontrollers soldered beyond recognition and the report handed in, the fourth year programming module now focuses on numerical methods, which are used to approximate solutions to functions that can’t be solved exactly. One of the best-known examples of […]
Posted in Career, Dissertation, Employment, Future, Lab, Postgraduate Study | Tagged Future, graduate jobs, I Science, Interdisciplinary Science, ISci, natsci, Natural Sciences, numerical methods, project, student blog
Posted by David in Natural Sciences on September 29, 2014
With the first term now underway it seems as good a time as any to give a summary of the masters year on the four-year natural sciences course, and what I’ll be writing about over the next nine months. Doing a masters in natural sciences consists of four modules running right through all three terms, […]
Posted in Career, Dissertation, Future, Studying | Tagged complex systems, fourth year, fourth year project, fractals and chaos, Interdisciplinary Science, interstellar molecules, ISci, IScience, Leicester, masters project, microcontrollers, natsci, Natural Sciences, numerical methods, polymer dynamics, programming, statistical mechanics, student blog, University of Leicester
Posted by David in Natural Sciences on June 12, 2014
My third year ended with a final exam in Palaeoclimate and Climate Modelling, followed by the first joint I-Science (natural sciences) and Physics ball. Forgoing the cliché of saying every year seems to go by more quickly, this year really did feel like a large jump in training for a career as a scientist. I […]
Posted in Future | Tagged centre of interdisciplinary science, Headstart Summer School, highlights, interdisciplinary sciences, ISci, natsci, Natural Sciences, Palaeoclimate and Climate Modelling, reflections, student blog, Sure Programme, The I-Science and Physics Summer Ball, third year, University of Leicester
Posted by David in Natural Sciences on May 22, 2014
With the end of term now just weeks away, my days are currently filled with climate proxies, programming, and thinking of every question that could possibly come up for my project viva now just days away… Unlike a lot of courses, natural sciences has core modules running in all three terms, which, for my year, […]
Posted in Future, Graduation, Studying | Tagged Anthropocene, anthropogenic climate change, centre of interdisciplinary science, Climate Change, climate proxies, inaugural Employability Symposium, interdisciplinary sciences, ISci, N-body simulations, natsci, Natural Sciences, student blog, University of Leicester, viva
Posted by David in Natural Sciences on February 5, 2014
From speaking with friends who have graduated or are in the masters year, it seems fairly unanimous that this point in the degree brings the most stress. Now engrossed in Maxwell’s equations and the theorems of Claude Shannon that make up the remainder of the current module, a host of deadlines fall at the end […]
Posted in Career, Dissertation, Employment, Future, Stress | Tagged centre of interdisciplinary science, guitar, interdisciplinary sciences, ISci, natsci, Natural Sciences, stress, student blog, University of Leicester
Posted by David in Natural Sciences on January 24, 2014
The year has been divided into groups, all now furiously pulling apart the material we’ve been learning on cell signalling pathways in the context of their chosen topic. For my group, we’re tackling disuse osteoporosis, in particular with regards to the physiological effects of long-term space flight. Here disequilibrium in bone formation and absorption is […]
Posted in Career, Future, Studying | Tagged cell signalling, centre of interdisciplinary science, interdisciplinary sciences, ISci, natsci, Natural Sciences, osteoporosis, project, reflection, space flight, student blog, University of Leicester
Posted by David in Natural Sciences on December 17, 2013
The last week of term drew to a close with the traditional feat of endurance to meet every deadline, sparing a few moments to decorate our corner of the Physics and Astronomy department and for a quick Christmas lunch before everyone leaves for the holidays. Looking back, this term has been the most work intensive […]
Posted in Dissertation, Friends, Future, Graduation, Studying | Tagged centre of interdisciplinary science, Christmas, first term, interdisciplinary sciences, ISci, natsci, Natural Sciences, project, reflection, student blog, University of Leicester
Posted by David in Natural Sciences on August 14, 2013
“Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results.” – John Dewey Despite the increasing fees, I’m convinced that education is becoming cheaper. In fact, the educational model as we know it is now in many cases free to […]
Posted in Career, Future, Studying | Tagged Code Academy, Coursera, Interdisciplinary Science, ISci, John Dewey, Khan Academy, Lectures, MIT Opencourseware, natsci, Natural Sciences, student blog, The New Boston, traditional educational models, University of Leicester |
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