Science students at école Plamondon got a hands-on boost on May 25, when the Let's Talk Science program rolled into town with interactive activities teaching blood typing, vehicle building, DNA extraction and more.
Science students at école Plamondon got a hands-on boost on May 25, when the Let's Talk Science program rolled into town with interactive activities teaching blood typing, vehicle building, DNA extraction and more.
William Chan, an immunology researcher at the University of Alberta, led the workshops. The science was real - students used real blood-typing reagents, built miniature vehicles that really moved, and extracted real DNA.
"They're really engaged, they seemed to really enjoy it. Some of them learned new things, and some of them touched back on things they've learned before," said Danika Richard, the école Plamondon science teacher who organized the program.
Chan's contagious enthusiasm was no surprise - he's currently working on an education degree, and plans to soon leave the lab behind and teach high school full time. He said the école Plamondon students' level of involvement and interest made this one of his most fun school visits ever.
"I feel like my time is so worthwhile when I see the kids totally having fun in there, and totally engaged in the activity," Chan said.
In the blood-typing lab with Grade 11 biology students, the class used real reagents to test the types of four simulated blood samples, and then used the types they found out to pretend to allocate a limited supply of donor blood. They made the same kind of decisions made by real medical professionals in the field - which, as Chan explained, can have life-or-death implications.
"They see the dilemmas that these professionals face - it's perfect because even though this is a simulated activity, they understand what the reality is," said Chan.
