Profile
Abigail Fiske
My CV
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Education:
Stoke High School, Ipswich, Suffolk, UK
Suffolk One Sixth Form Centre, Ipswich, Suffolk, UK
University of Essex, Colchester, Essex, UK
Teach First/Canterbury Christ Church University, Canterbury, UK
University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
University of Oxford, Oxford, UK -
Qualifications:
GCSEs (Stoke High School):
Maths, English, Triple Science, Psychology, P.E, Graphics, Media Studies (BTEC) – These qualifications helped me find my interests and also get into sixth form!A-Levels (Suffolk One):
English Literature, Biology, Psychology, Media Studies – Here I followed my love of science and learnt lots more about the human mind and body. I also loved books and films – so I took A-Levels in the subjects that interested me.Undergraduate Degree – BSc Psychology (University of Essex):
My Psychology degree gave me lots of knowledge about the human brain, and I became really interested in how babies and young children develop and wanted to learn more about what goes on in their brains.Primary Education Post-graduate Degree – Teach First (Canterbury Christ Church University):
I wanted to make a difference to the lives of young children and help them learn in a fun and exciting way. This meant that I could teach my own class of primary school children.Master’s Degree – MSc Developmental Disorders – University of Nottingham:
Here I learned about what can go wrong during children’s development, as well as different ways that we can help if this does happen.PhD – Experimental Psychology – University of Oxford:
When you study for a PhD, you pick a particular topic that you are REALLY passionate about and interested in, and spend four years learning as much as you can about it. In my PhD, I am learning about how babies and toddlers develop skills called ‘executive functions’ – these are skills that help them to remember things, switch between two tasks and stop themselves from doing silly things. I am also learning what happens in the brain to help young children develop these skills. -
Work History:
– Retail Assistant, BHS in Ipswich, Suffolk
– Retail Assistant, SPAR on campus at the University of Essex
– Research Assistant, Department of Psychology, University of Essex
– Primary School Teacher, Peterborough -
Current Job:
PhD Student
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About Me:
My name is Abigail, but you can call me Abi… Only my Grandma calls me Abigail.
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I live on the edge of the Cotswolds — in a town called Witney in Oxfordshire. It’s so beautiful here and my boyfriend and I make the most of long walks in the countryside and taking lots of photos with our cameras and drone.
Also, we have recently become pet owners! We have 16 fish in our BioOrb tank – 5 leopard danios and 11 Cardinal Tetra. My favourite TV show is The Big Bang Theory, my favourite colour is purple and my favourite food has, and always will be, PIZZA (or Za as we call it).
Before I decided to get my PhD in Psychology, I was a primary school teacher and taught in Peterborough for 4 years. It was so much fun!
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I work in the BabyLab at Oxford University where we want to find out how infants and young children develop. People always think that the BabyLab is a place where we do all sorts of weird experiments on babies. We don’t! Okay, fine, we do – but our experiments are fun and exciting – the babies and their parents really love their time with us at the BabyLab!
I want to find out how infants learn skills called ‘executive functions’ – these are the skills that help babies remember what their favourite toy looks like, listen to their parents when they are told “NO!” and switch between two of their favourite games. As you might have guessed, infants are really not very good at these skills!
To find out what they can do, we play lots of games with the babies and toddlers. Some games are on an iPad and we ask them to touch the smiley face button. They love this, because if they touch the right button they get to see a dancing elephant. I mean – who doesn’t love dancing elephants!? We also use an eye-tracker camera to follow the babies eyes whilst they are watching a video. This helps us to find out what babies find interesting on the screen, since they can’t tell us themselves! Finally, we use some exciting technology that helps us to measure the babies’ brain activity. We do this by putting a really strange looking ‘hat’ on the babies head (babies hate having things put on their head so we distract them with bubbles – YAY bubbles!). We then record their brain activity on our computer whilst the baby is playing another game on the iPad.
The babies’ parents are with us all the time and they really love learning what their child can do! We follow the same babies from when they are 10-months until they are 3 1/2 years old. Here is a picture of the same child at 10-months, and 2 years. So cute!
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My Typical Day:
I like getting up early, but not too early! I always try to go for a walk outside before I start work for the day – it’s fun to spot different birds as I walk. At the moment because of the coronavirus I am working at home, which is great because I get to wear my slippers all day! If I was at the BabyLab, I would make sure all of the toys and games are ready before I welcomed families for their session with us.
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This is a typical day (before the COVID-19 pandemic):
9am – Get ready for the BabyLab Visitors! This means turning on our laptops, loading up the iPad, preparing the ‘games’ (tasks) for the children, and getting consent forms ready for the parents to sign. This tells us that the parents are happy for their child to take part in our research.
10am – We welcome our first family to the BabyLab Reception Area. We have lots of lovely toys for the children to play with so that they can settle in and feel comfortable around us. During this time, the parents complete the consent forms and ask any questions.
10:15 – We then begin the session, playing games (tasks) on the iPad. Other tasks involve resisting a very exciting glittery wand. The babies LOVE this wand and find it very hard not to touch it!
10:30 – We move into another room where the baby sits with their parent and watches a video on the screen. We have a special eye-tracking camera that helps us understand what the baby is looking at.
10:35 – Finally, we finish the session by putting a special hat onto the baby’s head. This cap measures the baby’s brain activity when they are playing a game on the iPad.
10:45 – The session is finished – phew! We make sure that we thank the parent and the child for all their hard work and the child receives a small toy to take home with them.
11:00 – After a quick tidy up of the BabyLab, I will go back to my office and work on my computer. Here, I will look at some data that we have already collected and use it to answer some important questions I have about how babies perform on these ‘games’.
12:15 – 13:15 – Over lunch time there is a seminar talk, given by a member of the Psychology Department. A seminar is usually where somebody gives a presentation about their work and the audience have an opportunity to ask them lots of questions. This is great, because you get to find out what others in the department are up to!
14:00 – 15:00pm – After lunch, there is another family scheduled for a visit at the BabyLab. I make sure that everything is prepared in the BabyLab, and wait to welcome the next family!
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What I'd do with the prize money:
Enhance school student’s experiences of STEM subjects by providing funding for additional learning, activities and events.
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
Baby brain investigator!
What did you want to be after you left school?
A teacher (and I did become a teacher!)
Were you ever in trouble at school?
No, never!.... ;)
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Taylor Swift, Foo Fighters, The Black Keys
What's your favourite food?
Pizzaaaaaaaaaa
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
I would wish for.... health, happiness and unlimited pizza.
Tell us a joke.
Why don’t penguins fly? Because they’re not tall enough to be pilots.
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