News
BPharm3 students unravel the science of DNA to budding young scientists during 2022 Science Week
Cell Explorers is a scientific outreach project involving lecturers and students from multiple third level institutions that aims to encourage and inspire primary school students to pursue their interests in the Life Sciences and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
The project, which is led by the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences at the University of Galway, has been supported by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Discover funding since 2015, and within UCC, the Cell Explorer Team is led by Dr. Eoin Fleming and Dr. Kellie Dean.
As part of the programme, Cell Explorer Teams organise workshops in primary schools or science festivals during which 8 to 10-year-olds isolate DNA from bananas. The success of the UCC-led workshops is dependent on student volunteers from the university, who work with the children to do the experiments and to explain some of the science underpinning the experiments.
For several years (except 2020 and 2021), a significant number of UCC’s third year pharmacy students have enthusiastically volunteered on the programme. UCC’s School of Pharmacy has good reason to be immensely proud of its participating students in the Cell Explorer initiative, who possess a sense of civic duty and communication skills that are simply superb. It is fantastic to see how well our students interact with the children, their teachers and their parents, and the joy and enthusiasm that they bring. Most recently, 11 of our current BPharm3 class joined Dr. Fleming to deliver the Cell Explorer workshop to 57 children during Science Week 2022. Sincere thanks to Róisín, Fionn, Craig, Leah, Ciara, Muireann, Caoimhe, Órla, Máiréad, Julie and Jack for their efforts.
