Careers With Animals in collaboration with BAYLAB
On the 3rd and 6th of July, the widening participation team had the amazing opportunity to deliver events in association with BAYER at their state of the art facility; Baylab in Reading. The sessions were designed to spark an interest in veterinary or biology careers, or help those already determined to work with animals along the way.
First of all, the visitors came in and were given a special lanyard with their own Dr name on it, and a sticker to say if they were a 'Flea' or a 'Tick', to help split them into groups later on. We gave a quick introduction to everyone, including our student ambassadors and the trained Vets and Vet nurses who work for Bayer, and then it was time to start the activities!
The RVC created a carousel of different aspects of animal related professions, such as animal bandaging, comparative anatomy; specifically looking at the hearts of different animals, learning how to check an animals pulse (and your own), and figuring out mystery specimens. We were able to use our own collection of plastinated organs and prepared bones, as well as Bayers 'CPR dog', which allowed the students to check its 'femoral pulse' just like a vet.
Bayer also put on their own activites, one part included state of the art body scanners and virtual food, as well as testing the students jumping ability against a flea's. They also had the opportunity to don lab coats and head into the laboratory to check out parasites that may effect animals under the microscope.
Check out the video BAYER have produced about the day (link at the bottom of this page). We had a fantastic time and we hope the students did too!
