Masters in ‘Biology and Control of Parasites & Disease Vectors’ student Andrew Blanshard, has won ‘Best Poster’ at the MSc poster day on Friday.
All LSTM staff and students were given the chance to come along and view the posters, which will form part of the students’ assessment in module TROP719 ‘Parasite Epidemiology and Control’. They were each asked to carry out a virtual parasitological survey of ‘Wallo rural district’, a fictional area somewhere is sub-Saharan Africa.
The 14 students were all given the same data and they had to record how they would design their field study, explaining their methodology, looking at risk factors and sample size and setting out their objectives. The participating students used existing data from published studies with conditions similar to their own, in order to make a series of recommendations for a ‘Ministry of Health’ on how to best mitigate the impact of neglected tropical diseases in the area.
As part of the exercise, students also had to provide a timetable for the study as well as a list of equipment that they would need to take with them to carry out the study, providing them with the valuable opportunity to plan a field study before many of them will travel to undertake an actual study in the summer as part of their dissertation projects. Organiser Dr James LaCourse said: “It provides the students with a supported and safe environment to understand the detail required to plan a field study, which is important as many will base their dissertation on an actual study that they go on to undertake. The opportunity to present their conclusions with a scientific illustrated poster and short presentation will undoubtedly serve them well as they go on to present their future research at conferences.”