Nearly a hundred selected high school students had the opportunity to visit some of the National Cancer Institute's research teams' laboratories during October and November. During intensive interactive workshops, they were able to experience how science is done, at least for a short while.
The interactive workshops, which the NICR piloted just this autumn in ten dates, were filled to capacity and provided students with both theoretical training and practical laboratory work. The Institute of Biochemistry and Experimental Oncology of the First Faculty of Medicine of Charles University offered high school students "A microscopic look inside cancer cells" (main lecturer Martin Sztacho) and the answer to the question "Quo vadis, (tumour) cell?" (main lecturer Petr Výmola). The Institute of Molecular Genetics of the CAS then allowed high school students to take on the role of a DNA detective and discover "The mysterious species under the magnifying glass - is sequencing more accurate than a microscope?" (main lecturer Michal Kolář).
"I am very pleased with the interest of high school teachers and their students in cancer research. Meeting talented and motivated high school students is very refreshing and inspiring, so I am glad that we have managed to leave a positive mark on them. As we have learned, most of them are going to study biology or medicine and many of them are already considering working in biomedical research," says Aleksi Šedo, Director of the NICR, adding that the high school students especially appreciated the opportunity to learn about some laboratory methods, to try them in practice and to understand their relevance for cancer research.
"I would like to thank all my colleagues from the NICR very much for their cooperation in the high school courses and especially for their enthusiasm for the talented 'juniors' beyond their normal activities. I personally appreciate it very much and I am already looking forward to the next round of workshops in the first half of 2025, which will be even more intense!" adds Aleksi Šedo. A big thank you also goes to Petr Flachs and Petr Němeček, teachers from the Jiří Orten Gymnasium in Kutná Hora, who together with their students provided valuable feedback and many ideas for further improvement of the interactive workshops of the NICR.
"In any case, it is worth adding that the training of future professionals, which we are doing in cooperation with secondary schools, but also in newly accredited doctoral programmes, new courses and lecture cycles in the curricula of partner faculties, is an activity that goes well beyond the project period of the NICR," says Aleksi Šedo.
