The UNIS students have been actively attending student-led conferences and breakfast seminars and getting help to study for their exams in between lectures the last couple of weeks.
SCOPE, the student-led conference, drew the participation of numerous students, with some presenting posters and others delivering brief talks. Meanwhile, the popular UNISbreakfast sessions featured PhD students sharing insights into their career journeys, all while treating attendees to scrumptious free food and snacks. Notably, more than 50% of the biology bachelor students also participated in the UNISoracle, a specialized exam prep program designed to foster collaborative learning in the days leading up to their exams.
But does attendance alone gauge the success of these events?
At the beginning of the semester, we made a simple form with three questions in order to get feedback and quotes on the student-led activities. The questions were:
- “Which event did you attend?”,
- “What aspects of the event did you find appealing, and how did it benefit you?”
- “In what ways can we enhance the experience? Were your expectations met?”
The form was included as a QR code for all presentations given at events financially supported by bioCEED and hosted by bioCEED representatives. So far we have gotten over 50 replies to the questions and the feedback is fantastic!
Students have shared their positive experiences, highlighting the event as a safe learning environment to ask questions and engage with the audience. They have expressed how they learned across diverse academic interests and that they were thrilled with participating in networking opportunities during both breaks and poster sessions.
Quotes from the attendees:
“I think the event is very well put together and a fun and educational experience!”
“Great audience interactions! People were really keen on asking questions. I think it felt like a safe environment to ask things in, otherwise people could be too nervous to do.”
“I liked all the presentations, I learned about the science happening around me and meeting new people.”
“I really liked it, I attended last year SCOPE and signed up again for this year.”
“Improve? Nothing 🙂
Many students reported that they felt motivated after listening to the presentations. Some feedback highlighted that the lectures had a more personal style and that it was nice to get some examples of what a career could look like. Not unexpected, most students also mentioned that they REALLY loved the free food…
Quotes from attendees:
“Free food and more personal, not just academic focused lectures. Nice to have a change in what kind of presentations you can listen to.”
“I like the event really well!! So inspiring to hear other people’s story on how they got into the scientific world. Really thumbs up with the breakfast as well.”
“The food, the chili atmosphere and the interesting talk.”
“Motivated speakers, I got inspired to keep doing new things. Dream big.”
“It was wonderful!! I learned how a career looks like and that it’s ok to not have a perfect plan.”
UNISoracle
Another successful event, the UNISoracle, provided stressed-out bachelor students with valuable tools for working on topics for their upcoming exams. Students praised the event`s structured approach, which facilitated group work and allowed for deeper exploration of the topic.
Quotes from attendees:
“Really good structure of topics thanks! It was good to talk about it with the others.”
“I really liked the structure and the opportunity to study together because we wouldn’t have done it on our own. Thank you so much! I also liked the length- shorter would’ve been too short and my concentration would’ve gone down if it was longer.”
“Very active, good snacks and coffee. I liked the change between individual work, group work and then questions from the other groups.”
“The pedagogic approach was really good and it made us think deeper into the understanding of the topic and what the key messages where in each topic.”