Over the past couple of weeks I have been working in close collaboration with our highly enthusiastic and super organised Alexa Jeanes and my good friend and colleague from the Photon Science Institute Mark Dickinson. Between us, we’ve been delivering some A-Level Study Day sessions based around our frog research - and it’s been great fun for all involved.
Sessions have allowed students to get to grips with the latest hi-tech thermal imaging and spectrometry equipment, and use it to help them understand thermoregulation and also investigate the optical properties of amphibian skin. Alexa has really helped develop the session from what we trialed last year and it’s been an enormous success. The collaboration draws on the expertise and resources of both departments, and recently we had students in from Salford City College and Blue Coats School in Oldham (pictured as thermal image). For photos of the sessions please follow the links below: http://frogblogmanchester.wordpress.com/undergraduate-teaching/salford-city-college/ & http://frogblogmanchester.wordpress.com/undergraduate-teaching/blue-coat-school-oldham/
Here’s a picture taken during a previous session with a cold-blooded frog on the hand of a warm-blooded student. I bet the student’s hand wouldn’t look quite so warm if they were outside on this bitterly cold day tho. I sometimes think I must have been a tropical species in a past life 
It’s got me thinking… perhaps it’s time for a taste of warmer climes, with a bit of sun to help with my thermoregulation - and of course lots of tropical frogs…
Filed under: Uncategorized
