LifeLab – Page 2

Showcase countdown: Celebrating the legacy we are leaving every day

Posted on July 1, 2018 by Sian Bryant

LifeLab has the pleasure of working with some incredible partners, who share our ambition to engage and inspire the next generation of scientists. With us on that journey is the Winchester Science Centre and Planetarium, with who we work very closely and with who we will be celebrating at this week’s Showcase event.

Here, Director of STEM Strategy at the centre Emily Thorpe-Smith, talks about our common goal to train up our current incredible volunteers to become role models that inspire our students into scientific discovery of their own.

She says: “It is always a pleasure working with LifeLab, firstly with the STEM Ambassador Programme and secondly with the CREST Awards.

We work directly with the team to train the STEM professionals to work with the young people who attend the hospital sessions.

It is always a highlight to talk to the volunteers and guide them to become the best role models. Many of these volunteer continue to support STEM engagement away from LifeLab as well.

The CREST Awards add the much deserved recognition for the projects the young people complete, and add another last legacy.”

How diabetes and healthy eating are always part of our conversation

Posted on June 13, 2018 by Sian Bryant

This week, like most others at LifeLab, will see dozens of students visit our purpose built facilities here at University Hospital Southampton.

There will be the familiar buzz of excitement as students don their lab coats and goggles and prepare to get hands on with a range of experiments that will help shape how they consider their own health and the choices they make to effect it.

The ethos that underpins our work here at LifeLab is that we firmly believe in educating young people about the science behind the health messages so they can make informed choices for themselves, this includes discussing with students the causes, effects and preventative measures associated with non-communicable diseases.

Type 2 diabetes is one of those, conditions associated with poor diet is another.

As part of raising awareness of type 2 diabetes, students get the opportunity test and diagnose sugar levels in different (fake!) blood samples, work out their own type 2 diabetes risk and discuss how lifestyle choices can increase the risk of this disease.

The theme for Diabetes Week is all about starting those conversations, #talkaboutdiabetes is about speaking openly and honestly about the condition and its impact.

We are starting that conversation on a weekly basis with young people who up to that point may not have realised how their lifestyle choices could put them at risk of developing the condition.

The awareness week also coincides with Healthy Eating Week, another important campaign that seeks to raise the profile of the importance of making the right choices when it comes to food.

This year LifeLab has been referenced a number of times in connection with how our approach could be part of a wider drive to tackle childhood obesity. By letting young people discover for themselves what impact their choices could have on their health now and in the future, we are empowering them to make lifelong changes rather than short-lived ones.

Both Diabetes Week and Healthy Eating Week provide great opportunities to further underline the importance of the conversations we start here in LifeLab each and every week.

A lot of volunteering love

Posted on June 8, 2018 by Sian Bryant

There was an awful lot of volunteering love coming through from our team of Meet the Scientists this week as we celebrated the huge contribution they make to the success of LifeLab.

As part of the national Volunteers Week campaign, we invited our supporters to tell us why they gave up their time to talk to our students about their lives, work and inspirations.

We had an overwhelming response which reaffirmed our belief in what a crucial part the sessions play in not only inspiring a new generation of researchers but also by giving a huge amount back to our volunteers.

Programme manager Kathryn Woods-Townsend said: “We wanted to take the opportunity to say a huge thank you to our scientists and researchers who give up their time to support us. What we saw was how valuable it was, not only to the students but our volunteers too.

“The theme of always learning and being inspired is clearly a two-way benefit for both scientists and our students who take part ans support us.”

Below are the quotes we received when we asked our volunteers why they took part in the Meet the Scientist sessions. Enjoy reading them, we certainly did!

Find more on our twitter feed @LifelabSoton

“I volunteer at Lifelab because…… it’s a genuine two-way conversation, a chance to discuss the wide range of work we do, but more importantly to listen and understand people’s perceptions of that work.”

Martin Stevens

“I volunteer at LifeLab because…… speaking to the purest young minds helps me clarify my thoughts around my research and the process throws up questions I hadn’t anticipated. Furthermore, it’s great fun too.

Kazeem Olalekan

“I volunteer at LifeLab because I enjoy inspiring young people to become interested in science”

Meg Ashton Key

“I volunteer at LifeLab because I enjoy being able to share my work with kids and hopefully be able to spark an interest in science.”

Jaramillo Oquendo

“I volunteer at LifeLab because…… when you are truly passionate about your work it is a pleasure to share it with others. When I was at school we did not have work experience or resourses like LifeLab. There is a whole word of opportunities in STEM just waiting to be discovered, you just need someone to show you the way.”

James Thompson

“I volunteer at LifeLab because……I want to make science accessible and fun! Science has a reputation for being too complicated and boring and it is important to take science out of the lab so school students know how amazing science is.”

Catarina Moura

“I volunteer at LifeLab because I enjoy explaining my research to young minds, maybe that experience may spark interest in them to pursue science.”

Fatumah Atuhaire

Getting active – the need for change

Posted on May 31, 2018 by Sian Bryant

In this week’s blog, programme leader Kathryn Woods-Townsend talks about her involvement in the ukactive initiatives to get our children fitter, and how LifeLab is supporting it all the way…

Plotting the next chapter in the health of Britain’s children is the aim of a new initiative by an organisation set up to tackle the growing problem of inactivity amongst children.

It was two years ago that ukactive published their “Generation Inactive” report, exploring inactivity in schools, highlighting the issue and how things need to change.

In an effort to address this issue from all quarters ukactive is now compiling a new report.

At the ukactiveKIDS Council Forum, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson called for submissions from across the children’s activity sector to feed into the report which is due to be published at ukactive’s National Summit on 12 September and which will take a wide-lens view of the opportunities to improve children’s health.

ukactive wants written evidence which captures the views of children, parents, teachers, activity providers, social workers, policy experts, business leaders, healthcare professionals and government stakeholders, to help plot the next chapter in the health of Britain’s children.

Baroness Grey-Thompson said: “It takes a whole community to raise a child and that is why ukactive needs your help to build the evidence base and shape the physical activity landscape for young people.”

As part of this call for evidence (https://www.ukactive.com/ukactive-kids/), ukactive is hosting a series of focus groups across the country and LifeLab was proud to host the first of these.

Big thanks to @LifelabSoton for hosting @_ukactive KIDS focus group for our #ukactiveKids health & PA consultation; parental engagement, whole-systems approach, evidence base and Fun! Make sure you have your say https://t.co/5GDTAnOIMI pic.twitter.com/I8HXkT3sZq

— Jack Shakespeare (@JShakespearePA) May 10, 2018

The groups are considering a range of questions such as the challenges faced by institutions like schools to contribute to children’s physical activity, what challenges physical environments pose, how do social environments influence children’s activity levels and what is currently working to engage young people in activity.

Themes already identified include the need for a whole-system approach with the need for everyone to collaborate together. To succeed, any plan needs to be fun, to have parental engagement and have a good evidence base for planned projects.

UKactive is now gearing up towards a whole host of events and engagement activities to promote the importance of being active, but a key date in the diary is National Fitness Day that takes place on September 26.

The idea for the campaign was launched at a parliamentary event this month, hosted by the Speaker John Bercow. Ideas for the event to showcase the day came from Key sponsors Myzone and AxaPPP who tabled the idea of coming to work an hour later, to use the time for exercise. The idea of doing 10 minutes of exercise on the day itself under UKactive’s 10@10 initiative was also promoted.

The campaign is also calling for inspiring stories for people to share from across the UK to help promote the national initiative.

LifeLab will be throwing its weight behind this event and doing whatever we can to support the effort to get our children more active. Find out more here.

Plotting the next chapter in the health of Britain’s children is the aim of a new initiative by an organisation set up to tackle the growing problem of inactivity amongst children.

It was two years ago that ukactive published their “Generation Inactive” report, exploring inactivity in schools, highlighting the issue and how things need to change.

In an effort to address this issue from all quarters ukactive is now compiling a new report.

As part of this call for evidence (https://www.ukactive.com/ukactive-kids/), ukactive is hosting a series of focus groups across the country and LifeLab was proud to host the first of these.

The campaign is also calling for inspiring stories for people to share from across the UK to help promote the national initiative.

LifeLab will be throwing its weight behind this event and doing whatever we can to support the effot to get our children more active. Find out more here.

Game jams, summer schools and media coverage – just another busy week at LifeLab!

Posted on April 29, 2018 by Sian Bryant

Another week and another hugely busy and exciting one in the world of LifeLab.

As usual we welcomed more students to experience our purpose-built labs with A-level students from Richard Taunton Sixth Form College getting hands-on this week.

They also got the opportunity to take part in some media coverage as some of our participants were interviewed for an upcoming article by our colleagues within the NIHR Southampton Clinical Research team – watch this space for when we will be hitting the presses.

Along with welcoming students into LifeLab, our researchers regularly visit schools to gather more vital information and data that helps support all the work we do while at the same time giving students opportunities to improve their health that are being developed right here in Southampton.

We have talked a lot about our exciting new game-based intervention called EACH-B which is really starting to come together and took a huge step forward this week, thanks to the support of Oasis Mayfield.

The staff and students have helped tremendously in the development of the gaming application that we hope will make a real difference in improving the health of future generations.

This week students got to try out a very early prototype of the app; the first time it has been in the hands of students.

Around 40 of them got to try it out during a two-day ‘game jam’ testing event, providing invaluable feedback on user experience and development.

Overall the concept of the game, essentially collecting a series of items that appeared through the use of the app, seemed to go down well with our testers, who were then given the chance to suggest formats and themes that would appeal to them.

Our game designers from Glasgow Caledonian University had plenty of food for thought as a result of the game jam. As always huge thanks to Oasis Mayfield for their support in allowing us this invaluable development opportunity.

This week we were also delighted to confirm that our LifeLab Summer School has filled up in record time. Although not feeling very summery weather-wise this week, we are looking forward to a bright programme in July with 40 aspiring doctors taking part.

We had no shortage of students from years 9 to 11 signing up to the two-day event where they will be given a real insight into the medical profession through workshops in performing clinical skills, experiencing anatomy and pathology teaching and watching a trauma team respond to an emergency scenario.

The summer will no doubt come around in a flash, but there will be plenty to pack in before then.

Making our mark at regional health conference

Posted on March 26, 2018 by Sian Bryant

The importance of investing in early intervention health initiatives was the theme of this year’s Wessex Public Health Conference, so it was no surprise that the LifeLab team turned out in force.

Missing no opportunity to champion the work we do in empowering young people to make healthy choices that will have impact throughout their lives, we gave two oral presentations, had two posters on display and contributed to the opening and closing sessions.

Delegates heard from keynote speaker Dr Mary Barker about the EACH-B project as a way of engaging teenagers with their health. This highlighted the importance of involving young people in the public health decisions that affect them and raising awareness that this group needed to be listened to and invested in. Dr Wendy Lawrence also took part in the closing panel, highlighting the importance of promoting good health and wellbeing across the population rather than prevention of ill health.

The event was staged at the St Mary’s Stadium and saw more than 200 delegates take part in the day, showcasing national and local research with speakers on health psychology, genomics and prioritisation in public health.

Polly Langdon presented the findings of the BUPA Randomised Control Trial in a talk entitled: LifeLab Southampton: Improving scientific literacy as a tool for increasing health literacy in teenagers – a pilot cluster-randomised controlled trial while Donna Lovelock presented a summary of the work we are doing to deliver the Youth Health Champions Qualification in Southampton in a talk entitled: Youth Health Champions: hearing the pupil voice for promoting health and wellbeing through peer mentoring.

wessex_2 — Donna giving her presentation to delegates

Both were very well received by the audience with some thought provoking questions about the data collection and how we can more widely publicise and engage students in what we do.

The team walked away from the event as ‘award winners’ have scooped the prize for Best Poster at the conference.

Hannah Davey’s creation entitled: Understanding healthy choices through scientific enquiry: a primary school-based intervention to support knowledge translation and behaviour change (pictured below) wowed the judges enough to win the top prize.

hannahs_poster_wessex5 — Hannah’s winning poster

Polly also had a poster on display entitled: A systemic review of school-based educational interventions to improve diet, physical activity, BMI and body composition in adolescents (aged 10-19 years).

The take away message from the event was raising the importance of collaboration and ensuring we try and work in partnership and not in isolation, sharing ideas and good practice. It was a fantastic opportunity to see what others are working on in our region and a chance to network and develop new links for LifeLab.

Inspired by science at LifeLab – celebrating British Science Week

Posted on March 15, 2018 by Sian Bryant

Although more than 7,500 students already having visited LifeLab, it is always just as inspiring for our first-time visitors.

What better time to reflect on the importance of our project in encouraging young people to consider a future in science than during National Science Week 2018.

The campaign which is running throughout this week is aimed up championing all things science and underlining the importance of research and discovery throughout the country.

Here at LifeLab we are doing our bit by empowering teenagers to make healthy choices by investigating their own health through scientific enquiry.

After training teachers to lead in-school sessions with a with a series of lessons and resources, the students then spend the day in our custom-built laboratory at University Hospital Southampton.

Here they are able to get hands-on with their health and study things like DNA, grip strength, and use techniques like ultrasound.

This week we welcomed Bohunt school from Hampshire, so we took the opportunity to ask them what part of the Lifelab experience they enjoyed the most.

Jake told us: “A visit here makes your understanding of science and biology so much clearer.”

His classmate Eve said: “It was fun and important because you learn different things from when you are in school.” Fellow student Marley added: “It has made me more interested in science and discovering new things was quite fun.”

Along with being able to measure their own health, the students were also inspired by our Meet the Scientist session where they got to meet a researcher currently working in the field of cancer sciences.

Jake said: “I have been inspired to do something with research in cancer. You hear how common it is so it has given me that determination to do something about it.”

Isla added: “Meeting James who was working on this vaccine for oral cancer, was really inspiring.”

Watch the video here

Mental health is part of the package

Posted on February 1, 2018 by Sian Bryant

Today we are talking about mental health. In fact we are joining in with the rest of the nation as part of national Time to Talk Day. Although LifeLab focuses on the physical benefits of healthy choices, mental health is an important part of a young person’s whole wellbeing.

Here our Senior Research Assistant Polly Langdon talks about how, through empowering young people to make the right choices, their mental health also benefits.

We don’t need a reason to talk about the health of our young people, we do it all the time here at LifeLab, but this initiative gives us a chance to reflect on how we are impacting on the mental health of those who take part in the project.

Of course the main focus of our work is on the physical wellbeing of the young person, examining what happens as a consequence of the choices we make.

When teenagers come into LifeLab they can try out different ways of measuring their health and through their own scientific exploration, can take control of the choices they make in terms of diet and exercise.

It is that self-efficacy, empowering them to know they can make decisions for themselves, that has huge cross over with their mental wellbeing.

In the same way recognising that perhaps other influences are affecting what choices they make with their diet, the same could be said for how they take care of their own mental health.

Having that confidence in themselves to make good choices is a great by-product of what we do.

Another aspect of our work is how we introduce students to academics and researchers through our ‘Meet the Scientist’ sessions. This again has real benefits in that young people have their eyes open to what possibilities are out there and what is in their power to achieve.

Having their aspirations raised and horizons expanded undoubtedly has a positive impact on their mental health.

The wellbeing of our young people is getting ever greater attention. How they deal with the societal pressures from social media and peers and what impact it has on their mental health is something that past generations have not been exposed to in the same way.

The Time to Talk initiative is a great way of highlighting how we can look after our mental health, recognising when it is in need of some care and how important it is to start the conversation.

Starting the new year on a positive note

Posted on January 26, 2018 by Sian Bryant

This week Hazel Inskip, Professor of Statistical Epidemiology and Deputy Director of the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, gives her thoughts on how we have started 2018 on a high and what the next year might hold for LifeLab.

We’ve started the year with exciting things happening at LifeLab – our state-of-the-art teaching laboratory dedicated to improving adolescent health by giving school students opportunities to learn first-hand the science behind the health messages.
Steve Brine MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health and Primary Care visited us and expressed his enthusiasm, and, wonderfully, he was so taken with it that he extolled its virtues during a Parliamentary debate.
LifeLab and its ‘little sister’ Early LifeLab, which takes the work into primary schools, are getting such a lot of interest now and the excitement is building.

I’m proud to be working on EACh-B, which extends LifeLab even further. These extensions include support from teachers whom we train to enable the students to maintain their commitment to improve their lifestyles, plus a digital intervention with gaming elements.
For me, I’m learning a whole new vocabulary about digital game development – six months ago I’d never heard of a game jam, now I mention them frequently and two have already been held in Southampton this year to help develop this component of EACh-B. If we can find a way of helping adolescents to improve their health behaviours we should impact on their future health and that of their children.

I love some of the things I pick up on Twitter, and think the following article that I saw is a good message to take with us into 2018.
It was a piece in Nature which was called “Should we steer clear of the winner-takes-all approach?” and was all about how kindness is needed in science (and, I would add, in any walk of life) and how we achieve more if we work together rather than try to put others down.
It reported on a group of scientists in New Zealand who held a ‘Kindness in Science’ workshop last month, with the aim of kick-starting a movement that will offer a kinder, gentler and more inclusive scientific culture. The group’s mantra is “Everyone here is smart and kind — don’t distinguish yourself by being otherwise.”
A message for us all perhaps?

LifeLab shares its story with government ministers from near and far

Posted on January 12, 2018 by Sian Bryant

It was the start of a new school term for many and here at LifeLab we have hit the ground running.

This week saw us ‘bookended’ by government visits. Today we had the pleasure of showing public health minister Steve Brine MP around the purpose-built LifeLab facility.

He was keen to find out abut how Early LifeLab – the part of the project aimed at primary schoolchildren- can help deliver on the government’s Childhood Obesity Strategy.

Mr Brine was shown around the education space at University Hospital Southampton that is primarily used by secondary school pupils on their visit days, and talked through how the project is tailored towards a younger audience using a range of engaging and hands-on resources.

One of the aims of Early LifeLab is to engage children in understanding health messages and encouraging them to think about the choices they are making in their own lives. Mr Brine’s visit came during Obesity AwarenessWeek, a national campaign aimed at highlighting the issue and showcase projects, like LifeLab that are trying to tackle it.

Steve Brine (right) chats to programme leader Kathryn Woods-Townsend and Mark Hanson

We kicked off the week in similar parliamentary fashion, welcoming a delegation from overseas.

Alongside a bumper cohort of Cantell pupils visiting our purpose-built facility we also had the pleasure of hosting a delegation from the Republic of Ireland government.

The party included Professor Donal O’Shea from the University College Dublin; Professor Catherine Woods, Chair of Physical Activity and Health at University of Limerick; Dr Kwok, a post-doctoral fellow along with Dr Fiona Manseragh from the Department of Health and Dr Kevin McCarthy from the Department of Education.

The purpose of their visit was to see first-hand our state of the art facilities and how the LifeLab project was engaging with schools to promote healthy life choices in an effort to help tackle the impact of non-communicable diseases on future generations.

The delegation from the Republic of Ireland government on a fact-finding mission to LifeLab

The group was shown around the dedicated education space where they witnessed the hands-on learning in action.

Programme leader Kathryn Woods-Townsend and Professor Mark Hanson explained how the project used a range of resources to engage students in understanding the science behind health messages through a series of interactive experiences whilst at the same time helping with the professional development of teachers who continued with the modules back in their classrooms.

The group was interested to learn how the model could be used to advance the Healthy Ireland Framework which has been launched in the Republic of Ireland and is aimed at tackling health risk factors and promoting protective factors in youth, for lifelong health and wellbeing.

The University of Southampton

Tag: LifeLab