School Engagement
We are committed to encouraging school children to consider a career in science and to training the next generation of potential scientists. We have therefor participated in a number of school events ranging from speaking at after school meetings to judging entries in school science fairs.
Mini Med School
The Mini Medical School is a series of interactive lectures which explore the world of Medical Sciences and is open to anyone over the age of 15. In 2015 we participated in this series of lectures to raise awareness of Mitochondrial disease to the public and doctors of the future. Prof. Chrzanowska-Lightowlers, along with Dr Amy Reeve, Lyndsey Craven-Butterworth and Julie Murphy gave talks on Mitochondrial Biology and Medicine.
North East Digital
Accenture together with STEMettes and Schools North East ran a ‘technology for girls’ event at the Sage Gateshead in order to help teach girls how to write basic HTML and build web pages and to also raise the profile of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). At this event representatives from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Mitochondrial Research spoke to over 300 girls aged 11-13 about Mitochondrial disease and careers in science.
Leading Edge
The Leading Edge project hopes to encourage young people to engage with science and consider it as a possible career, by encouraging school children to take part in the research that is occurring at Newcastle University. At the Wellcome Trust Centre for Mitochondrial Research, six year 9 students come into the group and undertook a lab based project. As well as the children spending time in the lab, they also participated in a variety of workshops.
Nuffield Foundation Student Placements
Nuffield Research Placements give students the opportunity to work alongside professional scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians for 4 – 6 weeks over the summer holidays. The centre was lucky enough to have a number of students join us and undertake research projects based around mitochondrial science.
Seven Stories Big Ideas
Researchers from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Mitochondrial Research joined with 11 other researchers from across Newcastle University at Seven Stories National Centre for Children’s Books to use children’s books as a way of explaining the big ideas in their research. In order to share their research projects, the researchers led creative engagement workshops with storytelling, exercises and dialogue. Primary school children then became co-researchers and critical friends during the day and shared their understanding of the research.