A virtual approach to promoting the Biosciences in secondary schools

Description

The aim of this project was to further develop and enhance the current teaching curriculum by promoting the Biosciences in schools to include e-learning, a web-forum and a forensic science/analytical bioscience activity.

Over the past 5 years, the Institute for Health Research and Policy, in collaboration with several organisations including Islington Borough (Education Department), London Gifted and Talented and SETNET/dti, has provided a series of innovation courses that have promoted the biosciences via the Creativity in Science and Technology (CREST) initiative. CREST, nationally coordinated by the British Association and managed by City Challenge, focuses on developing the science and technical skills of talented young people in secondary schools. The initiative allows students to progress through a series of externally assessed programmes and achieve bronze, silver and gold awards. The lecture and practical components of the course are taught in the university and we would like to entice students in science by offering an updated and more modern version of CREST.

Forensic science seems to draw students into Higher Education (http://www.heacademy.ac.uk /news/1370_2524.htm) and thus our aim is to complement the workshop by introducing the following
a series of virtual notes on:

• The Cell – Prokaryotes versus Eukaryotes - Structure
• DNA structure and function
• Related techniques: DNA manipulation (restriction enzymes), Agarose gel electrophoresis, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), DNA fingerprinting
• The use of such techniques in forensic science (linked to forensic activity)
• Potential ethical implications of such knowledge – cloning, paternity tests etc
• Glossary of terms
• an e-forum
• a forensic type of activity that will be directly linked to the workshop

Links

• Widening student participation in the biosciences: a three centre study
• Developing new teaching and learning methods for enhancing the relevance of bioscience education at universities and in schools within local communities