Engagement
To aid in Cardiff University’s 130 year old mission to inspire the local community and help bring health, wealth and wellbeing to the people of Cardiff, we have developed a raft of innovative programmes to support the next generation of young people to achieve their full potential.
Our public engagement reaches disadvantaged urban communities and schools to tackle social inequalities and expose the wonders of biology and chemistry through the science of medicines. We also engage with rural communities and Welsh-speaking communities to ensure equity of opportunity and to address the shortage of not only pharmacists but all the roles that surround pharmacists in those communities, with the ultimate goal of pharmacy workforce development to support the provision of accessible healthcare to everyone across Wales. But as well as this we strive to engender a curiosity for and love of knowledge.
Access Pharmacy through the Science of Medicines
With a generous grant from Welsh Government and HEIW we have undertaken a Widening Participation project to engage with secondary schools to support the delivery of aspects of the WJEC curriculum.
After a lengthy consultation period with teachers, careers advisors, education bodies and pupils a suite of bilingual activities was formulated to help teach the kidney content in the GCSE Biology curriculum. Short videos, urinary tract models and workbooks were made of free of charge to schools.
The activities were contextualized with a career in pharmacy, which aligns with the Welsh Government’s Curriculum for Wales guidance for Careers and Work-related Experiences (CWRE) which means that pupils can understand how what they learn in school is applied in the real world. To date this project has reached over 500 pupils.
Eisteddfod
Since 2008 the School of Pharmacy have taken a leading role in science communications at both the Urdd and National Eisteddfods for Cardiff University. With annual visitor numbers for both events combined in excess of 150,000 our team have designed games to inspire and educate the next generation of scientists. Over the years we have demonstrated on subjects as varied as stem cells, neuroscience, sheep DNA and how new medicines can be found in sea sponges!
The School of Pharmacy’s Director of Research, Professor Arwyn Jones, has given the Science Lecture at the National Eisteddfod in 2008 and again in 2019.
Pharmabees
Started as an innovative research project to address antimicrobial resistance, Pharmabees has expanded to encompass the discovery of natural compounds for medicine, the installation of over 500,000 honeybees into Cardiff, the establishment of the Spot-a-bee app to track bee populations wordwide, mental wellbeing projects, greening community initiatives and the building of pollinator patches, and a host of school engagement projects, including a School Science Club, a Minecraft world and the construction of a website where Key Stage 2 teachers can find easy to replicate science experiments to aid in the teaching of the national curriculum.
Academic Lead, Professor Les Baillie, has also established a green prescribing project in the Cynon Valley, assessing the impact of time spent in nature on metal illness, an award-winning scheme sponsored by the Accelerate | Cyflymu programme and managed by the Clinical Innovation Accelerator (CIA) within Cardiff University.
Trio Sci Cymru
For this £5m Welsh Government and European Union initiative engaging over 3000 Key Stage 3 pupils in the South Wales valleys, the School of Pharmacy created the Apothecary Bees tranche of the project.
Workbooks and on site school visits over several years resulted in the successful delivery. Investigating antibacterial compounds in plants, the medicinal properties of honey and the importance of pollinators, the programme was created to inspire pupils to take up STEM subjects at A-level.
Children’s University
We have been instrumental in the Cardiff University’s collaboration with the Children’s University. Working in partnership with Cardiff Council we hosted over 1000 primary school children from around Cardiff.
Collaborating with other academic schools across Cardiff University, 90 activities were made available to pupils, each contributing to a “Passport for Learning” which culminated with a graduation ceremony in the spectacular Centre for Student Life, where both parents and children were invited, opening up the university to come sections of Cardiff society for the first time.
Our Climate Classroom
This CALIN-funded project involved a collaboration by scientists in the School of Pharmacy with a private company who offer a teacher-led programme with 24 lessons, 11 core experiments and over 100 activities. It is at the centre of Cardiff Council's One Planet Cardiff initiative. Each participating school is given an algae bioreactor that sequesters carbon dioxide from the classroom and it is the intention for every primary school in Wales to have one.
Other activities
As well as our structured programmes, we regularly attend science festivals and schools to spread knowledge in the science of medicines.
