Ethics.....

Two years ago I signed on as the Postgraduate Student Representative to the Animal Ethics Committee at Victoria. The work has been incredibly rewarding and has shed light on a career path that I want to pursue: animal welfare. Working at the SPCA, collecting data for Wellington Zoo, as well as my PhD study has contributed to this realization. 

As the postgrad student rep I found myself thinking about the students who work in the animal laboratories at Victoria. I also reflected on my own experience working with animals in the laboratory and realized that I had always wanted more of a foundation and more training when it came to animal ethics and animal welfare. And from this line of thought came the idea for an ethics training module for students. I proposed the idea to the larger Animal Ethics Committee, a subcommittee was formed with me as Chair and we were away. Last year we spent time putting together the content of the course and then refined it through feedback from various sources. For example, when the content was largely complete we held a "beta testing" session with some researchers and their students. After that we incorporated some additional material and the Committee deemed the course ready to be rolled out for real. The first session was held this afternoon; I ran the course and was pleased to have 40+ students attending. Because I firmly believe in preparing for presentations, and because I had given this one previously when in beta, I was able to run a fairly fluid course that was well received by the group. At the end of the session all the students had to see me to sign off on their participation; it was a great opportunity to chat with each student and without fail I received compliments about the content, the discussion points and my delivery. I only mention this because some of the rosiest comments came from students who spent the entire session sitting with smirks on their faces and arms crossed. I would never have guessed that they gained anything from attending the session. Teaching never fails to show you interesting things like this. I'm absolultey smitten with it. :)

We won't run another session until next term (July) but having this first one under my belt has imbued me with confidence. I'm very proud of this venture and truly believe that it is something useful for students as they grow and develop as scientists.