A-level Work experience programme: our graduates had a blast!
In 2019 the Zebrafish Lab had the pleasure to host 8 A-Level students for a period of one week, from 21st until 25th October. For many of our students, this was their first time in a research lab, so we made sure students received enough training and felt confident before they started with some hands-on experience. Students picked up the basic laboratory techniques very quickly. Once they were confident, we started delving deeper into the science behind our research and started the actual lab experiments. We were really happy to see how quickly the students picked up difficult concepts and how confident they grew in the lab during the course of the week. The students had the opportunity to learn and get hands-on research experience using many different techniques, such as traditional Molecular Biology methods, RNA in situ hybridisation and confocal microscopy. They also had the chance to see our cutting-edge behaviour assays and talk with our experts about their research. Despite being familiar with some of the theoretical concepts we were teaching, the majority of the students said they lacked in-depth knowledge on the subjects discussed. Nevertheless, on the final day, their presentations demonstrated their ability to grasp even complicated concepts and to place their work in the greater context of our research questions.
In 2019, we also launched a new mentorship programme, where we paired each student with a researcher in a mentoring relationship for the course of the week. This offered the opportunity for the students to engage one-to-one with a scientist, to discuss their careers goals and gather advise on academic paths. This initiative was extraordinarily well received, by students and mentors alike, and is one part of the programme we will continue in the following years.
All in all, our 2019 cohort was enthusiastic and a pleasure to interact with and supervise, and they really seemed to enjoy themselves, too, and worked extremely well together. We wish them all the luck in their future endeavours!
