Parkstone mum Kate Wedge has completed a research project to help scientists understand why the lake in her local park becomes clogged with algae in the summer. The algae can be toxic to animals and a nuisance to people using the lake for water sports.
Kate, 31, decided to take an Access to Higher Education qualification focusing on Biology at The Bournemouth & Poole College. The decision has now led to Kate winning a Gatsby Award, an honour created by Lord Sainsbury, the philanthropist and scientific benefactor. Her Access project was to study the problem that has become the bane of Poole Park and council officials - how to defend its beautiful lake, used by thousands of people every year, against all-pervading cyanobacteria which clogs its surface almost every year. She has helped local officials to focus an understanding of one of the weapons used in this bacteriological war.
Kate originally set out to become a dental hygienist, but that journey took a different turn and she decided, as a mature student, to study biology under the Access to Higher Education course offered at the college. The Bournemouth & Poole College is one of the leading providers of Access to HE Diplomas, with many students going on to study at top universities.
The challenge wasn’t easy for Kate, with a young daughter to care for and little knowledge of Biology, but she threw herself into the course. She was grateful for all the support she was given by the college's Student Services team.
She said: “It was tricky to begin with but I’m so glad I stuck with it. Now I’ve been offered a place at Aberdeen University on a five-year course in Embryology and Developmental Biology. I can hardly believe what has happened. It will be a huge life change for me.”
Kate will spend the next year preparing to move up to Scotland with her five year old daughter, and begin work in a fresh and challenging field with the knowledge that she has the aptitude and ability to succeed in a career in science. It also means saying goodbye to her beloved Poole Park which has been instrumental in helping her with her studies.
But before she does that, in September she has the honour to be presented with her Gatsby certificate at the Royal Society of Chemistry headquarters in London.
So what did Kate discover about Poole Park Lake’s algae problems?
For years cyanobacteria has been responsible for creating the blooms of algae that block the lake. These bacteria have been around on the planet for many millions of years and so it is unlikely that they will go away any time soon. But there are ways that they can be controlled.
Poole Borough Council has been using various methods, including a dye that blocks off Ultra Violet radiation to the water. UV, more prevalent in summer, is thought to help trigger rapid growth of the algae. They also try to harvest the blooms to keep the water clear, but that is very labour intensive.
Officials have also been using barley straw which is allowed to decay and is placed in the water in caged bales. It’s believed that as the straw decomposes it produces a microbe which attacks and kills off the cyanobacteria.
For about four weeks Kate carried out a research project in which she used samples of the bacteria, testing them in the laboratory in barley straw decomposition products. The results of her experiment demonstrated that the cyanobacteria levels measured, on a spectrometer, decreased noticeably.
She said: “Although I only had time for a one experiment the results were encouraging. More study is obviously needed under more rigorous conditions, but I think there is potential there to move the research forward.”
“My family have always loved the lake in Poole Park. My mother played there as a child and we’ve grown up around it. In the last 15 years as more traffic uses the park, the ‘run-off’ pollution has become more intense and has created the right condition for the cyanobacteria to thrive. It certainly has got a lot worse but hopefully there are some pointers to new efficient ways of controlling it.”
Now Kate is busy planning for university thanks to the Access Course which she says has done wonders for her confidence and has helped her to explore a future in science.
