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Francis Coverdale visits Bath University where there is a venue for Summer School Students taking various foundation courses. Also the views of mature students on job hunting.
| 1 | 00:00:00,000 | 00:00:01,000 | Open Forum Magazine 91 (August edition) FOUF183S |
| 2 | 00:00:01,000 | 00:00:02,000 | Frances Coverdale: Well, Summer School certainly gives students… |
| 3 | 00:00:03,000 | 00:00:06,000 | ..the chance to get ‘hands-on’ experience. Here on the River Frome, |
| 4 | 00:00:06,000 | 00:00:10,000 | about ten miles from Bath, technology students are getting back to basics. |
| 5 | 00:00:11,000 | 00:00:14,000 | They’re testing the water here for pollution , as part of their… |
| 6 | 00:00:15,000 | 00:00:17,000 | ..practical work on water quality and the environment. |
| 7 | 00:00:18,000 | 00:00:20,000 | (Frances Coverdale) They come down here to take samples which they’ll… |
| 8 | 00:00:21,000 | 00:00:24,000 | ..test later in the laboratory. It’s a case of putting into practice… |
| 9 | 00:00:25,000 | 00:00:27,000 | ..much of the theory they’ve been learning at home. |
| 10 | 00:00:28,000 | 00:00:31,000 | (Sue Dobgen) Well what we’re doing this morning is looking at the quality of water. |
| 11 | 00:00:32,000 | 00:00:35,000 | Water is a renewable resource and therefore we are assessing it, |
| 12 | 00:00:36,000 | 00:00:41,000 | both subjectively, biologically and chemically. So what we’re doing here, |
| 13 | 00:00:42,000 | 00:00:45,000 | this morning, is we’re doing the biological and a subjective assessment, |
| 14 | 00:00:46,000 | 00:00:49,000 | you know, is this river good, clean, how long’s it been like that? |
| 15 | 00:00:50,000 | 00:00:53,000 | And we can do that by looking at the creatures that live in the bottom… |
| 16 | 00:00:54,000 | 00:00:56,000 | ..and also look at the conditions under which they’re living. |
| 17 | 00:00:57,000 | 00:00:59,000 | (Sue Dobgen) Part of the requirements of all those creatures, |
| 18 | 00:01:00,000 | 00:01:03,000 | plus any pollution in the river water, is oxygen levels so we’re actually… |
| 19 | 00:01:04,000 | 00:01:08,000 | ..measuring the oxygen with an oxygen electrode, which is what you’ve seen, |
| 20 | 00:01:09,000 | 00:01:13,000 | and we will also be considering the flow of the river because… |
| 21 | 00:01:14,000 | 00:01:17,000 | ..if there are pollutants in here everything’s fine if there is enough water… |
| 22 | 00:01:18,000 | 00:01:22,000 | ..to dilute it away, so we’re actually measuring the surface velocity and… |
| 23 | 00:01:23,000 | 00:01:26,000 | ..the cross sectional area of the river so that we can get an assessment… |
| 24 | 00:01:27,000 | 00:01:30,000 | ..of the volume flow, so that should there be a pollution incident, |
| 25 | 00:01:31,000 | 00:01:33,000 | we’ll know whether this river can handle it. |
| 26 | 00:01:34,000 | 00:01:38,000 | (background noise of talking) |
| 27 | 00:01:39,000 | 00:01:40,000 | (Male student 1) Done quite a lot since I’ve been here. |
| 28 | 00:01:41,000 | 00:01:44,000 | It’s quite a varied course. Looking at all aspects of different things, |
| 29 | 00:01:45,000 | 00:01:48,000 | biology and chemistry and that type of thing. Found it really excellent. |
| 30 | 00:01:49,000 | 00:01:51,000 | I didn’t expect to learn as much as I have over this past week. |
| 31 | 00:01:52,000 | 00:01:55,000 | Male student 2: It’s been very informative. There’s a good variety of… |
| 32 | 00:01:56,000 | 00:02:00,000 | ..different topics, you know, from computers to messing about in the river. |
| 33 | 00:02:03,000 | 00:02:06,000 | (Frances Coverdale) Back in the laboratory the students get down… |
| 34 | 00:02:07,000 | 00:02:10,000 | ..to the business of titration, analysing their samples. |
| 35 | 00:02:11,000 | 00:02:15,000 | This is one of the real bonuses of Summer School, using university facilities… |
| 36 | 00:02:16,000 | 00:02:19,000 | ..not normally available to distance learning , or even part time students. |
| 37 | 00:02:20,000 | 00:02:24,000 | On top of that they can share results, discuss procedures and ideas. |
| 38 | 00:02:26,000 | 00:02:30,000 | Female student: This course is far more intensive than a course I did last year. |
| 39 | 00:02:31,000 | 00:02:36,000 | There’s far more to get through, but what I like about this particular Summer School… |
| 40 | 00:02:37,000 | 00:02:41,000 | ..is that there’s ‘hands-on’ experience rather than just theory. |
| 41 | 00:02:42,000 | 00:02:45,000 | Male student 3: Well the practical work fits in with the work we do at home. |
| 42 | 00:02:46,000 | 00:02:48,000 | At home all we can do is read about it but here in the laboratory… |
| 43 | 00:02:49,000 | 00:02:51,000 | ..we can actually see the reactions taking place between the different… |
| 44 | 00:02:52,000 | 00:02:55,000 | ..chemicals or the stresses and strains in the bridges that we’ve been building… |
| 45 | 00:02:56,000 | 00:03:00,000 | ..as models. So it has helped to clarify a lot of things that you just read about. |
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