Educating and inspiring future generations

EU-LIFE Science Newsletter 3/2017

Community News from the Biotech Research & Innovation Centre (BRIC), Denmark

​To bring science closer to high school students in Denmark and provide outreach opportunities for our many Marie S. Curie funded fellows, BRIC hosted its first hands-on training for high school students writing their 3rd year project (SRP) in life sciences back in November 2016. The topic was cancer treatment.

Engaging BRIC in outreach and public science education has long been on the agenda. Throughout the years BRIC has been approached by several students with great interest in visiting our laboratories and writing their assignments within the different research areas at BRIC. Students within the life sciences and physical sciences often visit universities for hands-on experience and real data to take home for analysis. An SRP course is therefore a perfect match between BRIC and student interests.

The SRP course was developed primarily by postdocs and PhD students hired on Marie S. Curie funding, with the help of two PIs and BRICs communications officer. Over two days, students performed a pre-planned experiment in the lab and analyzed the results under guidance from BRIC researchers. The experiment provided the students with a dataset to be used in their written SRP assignment.

Besides being a great way to educate and inspire young students, it was also a great way for BRIC researchers to engage with the public and fulfill their outreach activities linked to Marie S. Curie funding. The SRP course turned out to be a great success with highly motivated and curious students, so much that BRIC will host its second SRP course in the fall of 2017.

Image: High school students in the lab