Ask a Student: All about Biological Sciences

Hi everyone!

Whether you're passionate about wildlife conservation in the climate crisis or intrigued by the ever-changing world of healthcare in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis, Biology is an excellent degree choice for those who are passionate about making a difference and exploring the nuances of the living world.

Here at Reading, we offer various degrees within our School of Biological Sciences depending on whether you'd like to study it in all its breadth or focus on a specific area from day one.

It can be challenging to know what approach you'd like to take, so this week, we'll be hearing from Paige, a 1st Year Biomedical Engineering student, and Becs, a 3rd Year Ecology and Wildlife Conservation student, to give you an idea of what studying a Biology-based subject is ACTUALLY like at the University of Reading!

Please let them know if you have any questions, and we hope you find the thread helpful!

Lottie

GRTUK and Reading alumna (History)

Reply 1

UniofReading

Official Rep

BSc Ecology and Wildlife Conservation… Why I chose my course and what do I like about it?

I’m Becs, a final-year student, studying BSc Ecology and Wildlife Conservation here at the University of Reading! Applying for my course seems like both a long ago but also like yesterday. But why did I apply for this course to begin with?

So I think the first reason for applying was and still is my love and interest in the natural world. I am a big believer that you should enjoy your degree and what you are learning. Not only will this make your university experience more enjoyable but university can be hard and a love of a subject can help you get through tougher and busier times! I love the natural world and with the state of the planet at the moment, studying something very current and worthwhile was important to me.

This leads me to my next point that Ecology and Wildlife Conservation being so relevant means there are plenty of jobs out there! With this degree, you can work in so many roles including within sustainability departments, as an ecologist, a ranger, for wildlife trusts. The list goes on. For me, I want to go into biology teaching to get more young people inspired to pursue biology careers.

The next hurdle I faced when choosing a course was choosing where to do my course. I visited several open days of different universities that I was interested in, including Reading! I really recommend attending open days as a website can only say so much. It wasn’t until I went to the open day here at the University of Reading that I decided yes this was the place I wanted to be studying!

The campus is amazing for anyone wanting to study for an environmental degree. There are over 100 acres of green space, lakes across campus, a semi-natural woodland, a flora garden, the new Health and Lifesciences Building and the Cole Museum of Zoology! You really are in the heart of nature. This is one of the things I really like about my course.

By having so much wildlife, greenspace and facilities on campus, it means we get to do a lot of fieldwork and practicals on campus, instead of having to travel far. On campus, I have carried out lab work including IDing insects under the microscope, looking at dinosaur fossils and dissecting plants! Outside on the campus or the nearby University of Reading farm, I have laid pitfall traps, counted bird numbers and done bat spotting! We also had a very cool reptile handling session where we held reptiles such as snakes and lizards! This is all great experience and skills that can be taken into a career working with nature.

Another thing I like about studying BSc Ecology and Wildlife Conservation at the University of Reading is the number of optional modules we get. Each year, a lot of out 120 credits are made up of optional modules meaning you can tailor your degree in the way you want to learn! If you want to learn more about plants, you can pick more plant modules, the same goes for animals etc. Because I knew I wanted to go into teaching, I took an optional module from the School of Education called ‘Development of Transferable Skills through a School Placement’! This involved me observing science lessons in a local secondary school. The modules are vast and with a wide range of topics you can cover!

Overall, as a final-year student, I can say I am very happy with my choice to study BSc Ecology and Wildlife Conservation at the University of Reading.

Let me know if you have any questions about studying Biology at Reading, and we'll be hearing from Paige later on in the week about their experiences!

Becs :smile:

Final Year Ecology and Wildlife Conservation student

University of Reading

Reading

BEng Biomedical Engineering… Why I chose my course and what do I like about it?

Hey! I'm Paige, and I've just finished my first year of BEng Biomedical Engineering at the University of Reading. I'm going to share a bit about why I chose this course, why Reading, and how it's going so far.

I have always enjoyed engineering and creating things. I also care very deeply about helping others. I learned about Biomedical Engineering from a booklet my grandfather gave me, which described everything that I wanted to do. Biomedical Engineering is a field that finds engineering solutions for medical problems, such as creating MRI machines, prosthetics and even tissue engineering. Although the course is relatively new and only a few universities have degrees, each class provides different specialities you may want to study. Some are more medical orientated, such as clinical skills, and others are more engineering orientated, such as programming. I chose Reading for me as I am very interested in prosthetics, programming and the brain and how they can be integrated to create a better quality of life for amputees. The Biomedical Engineering BEng course was a mix between medical-orientated and engineering-orientated. The University of Reading has modules such as medical prosthetics and robotics, brain-computer interfaces and neurobiology; therefore, it was the one for me.

In the first year, the course allows getting everyone at the same knowledge level and learn new knowledge. I did not take biology at A-Level, so I do not know as much as those who did, but I did do physics, which means that I already know those modules where others do not. It shows that the course wants to give everyone equal opportunities. I enjoy the practicals I get to do for each module as I enjoy the hands-on activity. An example of one of the practicals which we did in the Building Blocks Of Life module was analysing short fragments of DNA obtained by PCR. The programming practicals are challenging even for someone who has done programming before, but if you keep at it, you will get it, and there's always support if you need it. The course has a building which it shares with the computer science students that has a study room. It is suitable for working with my coursemates and solo work as it has places to charge your devices and is small and comfortable. Having this space on campus is something I value, as it is quieter and separate from larger study spaces on campus.

I hope this gives you some insight into why I chose my course, and if you have any questions feel free to ask away!

Paige :smile:

First Year Biomedical Engineering student