LifeLab – Page 3

Time to showcase the difference LifeLab can make

Posted on December 13, 2017 by Sian Bryant

The LifeLab team supported the recent Health and Wellbeing conference, organised by the University of Southampton’s Education School.
Professionals from across primary, secondary and further education sectors took part in the day which involved participating in a series of workshops and sessions aimed at developing expertise in the Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) area of the curriculum.
Here teaching fellow Lisa Bagust, talks about how the conference provided an opportunity to showcase LifeLab’s work.

One of our aims at the recent Health and Wellbeing Conference was to increase participation of schools and students in the Youth Health Champions programme through engagement with LifeLab.
The Health and Wellbeing conference provided a fantastic opportunity to introduce trainee secondary teachers to the RSPH Level 2 Award in Youth Health Champions and explain how LifeLab delivers the modules and supports students and schools in gaining their award.

The award is a qualification pupils obtain and enables them to provide peer support through an understanding of the individual and social drivers of healthy and unhealthy behaviours, as well as signposting to local health services.
It also provides them with the knowledge of health and wellbeing issues relevant to them and develops their skills to deliver positive health messages to their peers.
Pupils understand the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, and are more likely to approach and listen to their peers and develop skills for the workplace.

There are also benefits for the school too as the scheme improves the health and wellbeing of students and staff, increases health literacy, improves links between young people’s services and reduces bullying.

The LifeLab programme offers a fully resourced, curriculum-linked science module for Year 8/9 students that is based on science research being carried out at the University and the hospital.
The programme encourages young people to examine the science behind health messages and how their own choices could affect their health in later life.

health-3 — LifeLab stand at the conference

Our package includes CPD for teachers, all resources and transport costs and supply cover for the visit to LifeLab. There is also the option of undertaking the Youth Health Champions Level 2 award for those students selected to complete an additional three modules.
Trainee teachers at the Health and Wellbeing conference had the opportunity to try out some of the LifeLab resources that pupils enjoy during the programme. That included hands-on activities like playing a card game, when players are posed questions like what the biggest causes of death were in the UK and how they have changed over time.

Those taking part in the workshops also played the Tower of Risk game when they were asked what they believe are the biggest risk to their health was and what they could do to reduce that risk. Alongside getting to grips with the resources participants also familiarised themselves with the aims of the Youth Health Champions award.

At the conference we were told how a recent evidence review had shown how PSHE education supported academic success while other research had shown that pupils with better health and wellbeing are likely to achieve better academically, underlining how important developing this area of the curriculum is.

Saluting our volunteer supporters

Posted on December 4, 2017 by Sian Bryant

Programmes like LifeLab run on lots of things.

At the heart of it is our shared belief in how nutrition can improve health across the life course and help young people break the cycles of unhealthy behaviour.

Along with those who are leading this pioneering research and those who deliver the teaching to the thousands of schoolchildren it will benefit, we are lucky to have an army of volunteers who are willing to share their expertise and, more importantly, their time with our project.

So as the world marks International Volunteers Day this week, we at LifeLab wanted to take the opportunity to say a huge thank you to all those who support us in making a difference to the future health of our children.

Thank you to those scientists who give their time to engage with our visiting students through our ‘Meet the Scientist’ sessions. The scientists and researchers, both from the University of Southampton and University Hospitals Southampton, share their own stories and inspiration for their work with our students in these sessions.

Many are not even talking to the students about nutrition and health, but just opening their eyes to the broader appeal of science and how it can change the world.
Teenagers sit and chat in informal, small groups and find out about the work that is being carried everyday and have the opportunity to ask whatever they like – from questions about what kind of people ‘do science’, to what scientists get up to in their jobs, to specific questions about their research.

The scientists who come to these sessions play a valuable role in inspiring the next generation to believe that they too could one day make a difference through science.

Our volunteers also take part in the Winchester Science Centre STEM Ambassador Hub programme where the work they do in public engagement is recognised in raising the profile of science, technology, engineering and maths subjects.

Through our volunteers we also build on some wonderful partnerships with our wider research family including Cancer Research UK along with the Institute for Developmental Science and the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit based at the University of Southampton.

We also rely on volunteers to help organise and run open days and science events which helps promote and share the work we do here at LifeLab whilst at the same time engaging young people in the messages we hope will help them lead healthier lives.

Volunteers play a vital role on a daily basis in all walks of life. LifeLab is one of them and today we salute you.

Milestone moment for LifeLab

Posted on November 25, 2017 by Sian Bryant

There has been much to celebrate at LifeLab this week. Four years ago we opened our laboratory doors to a brand new project aimed at engaging the next generation in the science behind health messages so that they could look forward to healthy futures.
This week we saw the 7,000th student walk through those same doors, marking just how far the programme has come.

board — Big numbers at LifeLab this week

St Edmund’s Catholic school from Portsmouth celebrated the milestone with us as it was their visit that pushed us past the 7,000-student mark.
Along with all the usual array of hands-on experiments that comes with a day at LifeLab, the students were also given some stationary, so they could remember making the milestone with us.

Our programme leader Programme leader Kathryn Woods-Townsend said: “We are thrilled that in only four years since LifeLab opened over 7,000 teenagers from across the South Coast have participated in the program.

“These teenagers are the next generation – engaging them with the science behind the health messages, so that they understand the importance of making healthy lifestyle choices now will ensure that not only will they be healthier as they grow up, but that these health benefits will be passed onto their future families.”

And the celebrations don’t stop there as we are looking forward to the official launch of the EACh-b programme which aims to improve the diets and physical activity levels of adolescents.

We will be welcoming our partners to LifeLab on Monday to celebrate this new chapter while some of our team will take part in some training so we will be better equipped to tackle this exciting research.

Never a dull moment at LifeLab

Posted on November 17, 2017 by Sian Bryant

Another busy week here at LifeLab: multiple school visits, supporting health awareness days and networking with a wonderful organisation to raise the profile of what we do, it’s been non-stop!

We have had the pleasure of meeting lots of enthusiastic students this week with pupils from secondary schools from Hampshire experiencing their LifeLab day here at our purpose-built education space in University Hospital Southampton.

Groups of students from St George school in Southampton and Thornden school in Chandler’s Ford got stuck into a range of experiments on their own health to reinforce the education messages around making the right choices in early life to protect your health in later life.

Alongside that our teaching fellow Dr Hannah Davey also visited Springhill school in Southampton to speak to primary school children about how they can keep healthy as part of our Early LifeLab project.

This week also saw two high profile awareness days around diabetes and COPD, both of which are issues covered as part of the LifeLab programme. Students discover what Type 2 Diabetes is, how you can test for it and what they can do to lower their risk of developing the condition. Similarly, the LifeLab experience also talks about the importance of keeping lungs healthy and what choices we can make to ensure they stay that way.

Meanwhile our programme leader Kathryn Woods-Townsend, research lead Professor Mark Hanson and Hannah had the pleasure of meeting the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists in London this week.

Over lunch Mark was able to outline the core aims of the LifeLab project and how its interventions with children and adolescents at a young age are tackling issues like childhood obesity. Mark talked about how it was important to engage with organisations like the WCIT who could support Lifelab’s endeavour to build in digital technology to the LifeLab programme, which would meet many educational, health and societal goals.

He ended by talking about LifeLab as our ‘gift’ to the next generation, by imparting what we know about how our early life choices affect the life course itself and the idea that by changing the beginning, you can change the whole story.

Kathryn says: “I always think it is a privilege to be able to share what we do with people in other organisations, businesses and communities to see how we can help in other.

“Combining our knowledge and ideas with other stakeholders is a great way of moving projects like ours forwards and raising the profile of what we are doing, and can all do, to improve the health of the next generation.”

LifeLab takes centre stage at international congress

Posted on November 3, 2017 by Sian Bryant

A unique education programme based in Southampton took centre stage at an international health congress addressing how early interventions can impact the life course.

LifeLab is an innovative teaching laboratory based at University Hospital Southampton, dedicated to improving adolescent health by giving school students opportunities to learn first-hand the science behind health messages.

By conducting their own research and taking part in a series of hands-on practical activities at the custom-built laboratory space, students find out for themselves how the lifestyle choices they make now could impact their future health and that of their future children.

The success of the programme that has so far reached almost 7,000 students across the south coast, was highlighted at the recent Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) World congress hosted in Rotterdam under the theme of Lifecourse Health and Disease; Observations, experiments and interventions.

LifeLab programme leader Kathryn Woods-Townsend gave a presentation to delegates outlining results from a pilot randomised control trial, showing that participation in the LifeLab programme provides an engagement opportunity for teenagers, upon which support for healthy behaviour choices can be built.

Kathryn on stage at DOHaD Pic courtesy of Kristin Connor — Kathryn on stage at DOHaD
Pic courtesy of Kristin Connor

Mary Barker, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine outlined a new project, funded by the National Institute for Health Research – Engaging Adolescents in Changing Behaviour (EACh-B), which builds on these initial findings to translate this motivation into behaviour change.

With over 1,000 delegates and 96 invited speakers, the World Congress celebrated its 10^th anniversary with a fabulous overview of the world-leading research being carried out in this field in a multitude of disciplines.

Staged every two years the Congress is organised by the DOHaD Society which has been spearheaded by researchers based at the world-renowned Institute of Developmental Sciences and the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit at the University of Southampton.

Professor Mark Hanson, co-founder of LifeLab, is also a co-founder of the DOHaD society and was president between 2007 and 2017. Professor Hanson commented: “DOHaD was set up to promote research into the fetal and developmental origins of disease.

“LifeLab is one of a number of research programmes being undertaken and one that particularly focuses on whether intervention at the adolescent stage can positively impact long-term health.”

Mark is also Director of the Institute of Developmental Sciences which is also celebrating its 10^th anniversary of the opening of the Institute of Developmental Sciences next week.

LifeLab will be among the participants at next week’s anniversary events to mark the milestone.

The Institute is hosting a day of science, showcasing their achievements over the decade and exploring future implications for health now and across generations.

The event will be attended by local and national leaders in scientific research, clinical experts, health policy makers, and representatives from funding bodies and industry.

The day will culminate in a public event, at which local school students, teachers and other professionals will join a celebrity panel for a Question Time-style debate entitled Building Superhumans?.

The panel will include Professor Lord Robert Winston, author and presenter Dr Adam Rutherford and Olympian Shelley Rudman.

Find out more about the anniversary events and book tickets here

The University of Southampton

Tag: LifeLab