UGRE 2018

The Undergraduate Research Experience at University of Leeds went off without a hitch, for us at least. Snack bowls at the ready we plugged our research for an hour straight. In true student style, we wrote our 'script' of sorts approximately 45 minutes before the conference began, I like to think this added to the adrenaline for the event.

The preparation for this has been 90% worry and 10% actually creating our display. The word 'UGRE' — pronounced ogre, or oooo-gre perhaps? — Had struck fear in Fahim and I's hearts since last September, unlike Gary who was positively stoked. Luckily, all of my years of arts and crafts in primary school came to good use and the display was complete by the evening before.

UGRE was great for us as a team, coming back after Christmas our research had felt rather stunted. The lack of real direction in our focus was remedied by the requirement to refine our research for our poster display. Finally we have a real, practical research focus: the impact of gender on children's schooling in 20th century Britain, with focus on the experience in the classroom, sports field, and future career prospects.

We are basing this around the collection of school magazines which we found whilst working with the museum of History of Science, Technology and Medicine. They create an interesting focal point for our project, since their publications span from the 1930s to the 1970s and include input from teachers, students and local employers. It feels good to have finally commenced our action plan. Now for the real work!

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