Lab meets teacher

The new edition of the MDC’s “Lab Meets Teacher – Digital” further education program begins in September. The eight online LMT training sessions will give teachers insights into the latest research topics and methods – such as single-cell analysis, which is expected to deliver new understanding of disease processes.

Whether it’s in biology, chemistry or bioinformatics, research is developing at a rapid pace. To help science teachers stay up to date in their fields, the MDC created the special further education program Lab Meets Teacher – offered in both digital and analog formats. Luiza Bengtsson and Zoe Ingram explain why the program is so beneficial for teachers, students and researchers alike.

When virologists become reality TV stars, biologists dream of life without illness, researchers debate organoids vs. animal testing with the general public, and biomedical scientists discuss the possibilities of AI, it can only be Berlin Science Week. This year, the MDC is holding a number of virtual events.

Is it possible to grow organs in a petri dish? How does CRISPR gene editing work? What happens at the cellular level when SARS-CoV-2 infects the body? Our new online further education format “Lab meets teacher – digital!” enables teachers to gain an in-depth understanding of current research issues like these.

More than 250 students and 15 "Jugend forscht" award winners from all over Germany met at the Digital Forum from MINT-EC and MDC in February. They attended lectures and workshops on digital developments and methods and conducted experiments in the lab.

Several times a year, the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) opens its doors to teachers for further education courses such as “Lab meets teacher.” In November 2018, STEM teachers met at the MDC to exchange best practice teaching ideas at the Science on Stage festival.

Can the lives of microorganisms be described through mathematics? It is one of the questions that pupils participating in the MINT Excellence Academy in “Systems Biology” have asked scientists during their visit to the MDC from Feb. 6 to 10 this year. Twenty pupils from across Germany have come to catch a glimpse of how researchers combine laboratory and computational science into models of biological processes.

On March 11, 2016 stem cells were on the timetable for a number of students in Berlin with a keen interest in biology. More than 200 high school students from 15 Berlin schools attended Germany’s first UniStem Day, hosted by the MDC in Berlin-Buch. The new action day with a focus on current stem-cell research, organized by the German Stem Cell Network (GSCN), was all about arousing students’ curiosity, answering their questions, and providing them with information about stem cells.

Citizen science: Teachers, pupils and scientists work together to measure sitting behavior in young people.

Starting in the fall, MDC scientists will take part in a successful new Berlin proposal for “Teachers and scientists.”