A group of budding young scientists visited the CRH labs this week, as part of the Science Insights programme (which ran from Monday 20 July until Friday 27 July, 2018). This exciting work experience programme is designed to give fifth year high school students an insight into the work and life of research scientists. Around 50 high school students spent the week following a varied programme of activities throughout a number of University of Edinburgh campuses. Students were offered a real insight into research and what work in biological sciences would involve, and the activities included workshops and presentations, laboratory experiments, and learning more about careers in science. Young scientists from Dunbar High School and George Watsons College visited CRH to shadow Laura Milne (male fertility research) and Kate Walker / Moira Nicol (research into the human endometrium) working in their labs. The students toured the scientific facilities and got actively involved in the lab work. They learned to identify animals by a genotype, investigate clinical biopsies through a microscope, pipette samples, stain testis tissue and identify cell types, and evaluate results. Three groups of student also visited CRH later in the week to experience our fully equipped histology lab, where tissue samples are processed, sectioned and stained by highly skilled staff. They enjoyed a tour and some hands-on lab experience, facilitated by Mike Millar (head of facility at CRH). Laura Milne, Senior Research Technician at MRC CRH, said: “We really enjoyed hosting the students. They were very enthusiastic and interested in the work carried out at CRH, and had a genuine interest in science. They were eager to get some hands-on experience in our lab and it was great to see how much they enjoyed the experience. “Hopefully this visit to CRH - and rest of the Science Insights programme - will encourage them to consider careers in research or medicine. I feel that this is a really valuable programme for students and I wish I’d been offered something similar when I was at school.” For more information on Science Insights please visit: https://www.ed.ac.uk/student-recruitment/widening-participation/projects/other/science-insights Image HTML Publication date 31 Jul, 2018
