Aim of this workshop was to teach the school kids that (1) we humans are made up of many small building blocks, the cells, and that (2) these cells function like small factory plants. The two-hour workshop took place in the CMMC Research Building on March 15, 2023.
At the beginning of the workshop, we used the image of a chocolate factory to compare and to explain the structure and organization of a human cell and the function of the various cell components, the organelles. When they examined a skin sections under the light microscope, the children discovered a hair root and the skin cells with the stained nuclei. In the final step of isolating the genetic material from the model organism “zucchini”, the school children were even able to see the genetic material with their own eyes. By During crafting the of a "model cell" incl. cell organelles, the young guests children uncovered the secret of the smallest building blocks of the human body.
In the final step of isolating the genetic material from the model organism zucchini, the school children were even able to see the genetic material with their own eyes. During crafting a "model cell" with the cell organelles, the school children uncovered the secret of the smallest building blocks of the human body. As a special highlight, the children visited scientists in their research laboratories and the scientists explained why research on cells is important for staying and getting healthy.
A big thank you to the 18 school children! It was super a lot of fun to accompany you at the different stations and to answer your many questions during the workshop. Many thanks to all the CMMC PhD students and postdocs - Marie-Kristin Kroll and Claudio Sierra Gonzales (CMMC Research Group Brähler); Alexandra Albus - Dmitriy Holzmann - Christina Meyer - Julia Kutschera (CMMC Research Group Simonis) and Linda Zierden (CMMC Research Group Pöpsel) - who supported the workshop.
Sun, skin and shade are real superstars. The sun makes life on earth possible and is a great source of warmth, the skin is the largest human organ and in the shade, it is always nice and cool in summer. But that's not all: in this lecture the school children gained insights how special the sun is and that the radiation of the sun can be good and bad. With the help of simple experiments, the girls and boys discovered the three types of solar radiation that reaches the earth.
They got to know the UV beads, with which the UV radiation of the sun can instantly be made visible and the UV-Index - a digital tool to better assess the sunburn risk. They discovered the "sun terraces" in their face and on their head and learned that a sun hat protects face and head perfectely by using the "4-Kappen-Trick" together with other useful and easy to handle sun protection tips which will help to be well-prepared for the next sunny days.
More than 50 school children attended the interactive one-hour lecture, which was given in the lecture hall of the "Frauenklinik" on March 09, 2023. Many thanks to all of being so active! Many thanks to Milena Klinkhammer and Samuel Seibel from the project team DIE SONNE UND WIR for their support.
This year´s KölnerKinderUni workshop and lecture were jointly organized by the Public Outreach Team of the FEBS-IUBMB-Enable Conference Organisation and the Skin Cancer Prevention Project DIE SONNE UND WIR.
Copyright ©
Prof. Dr. med. Thomas Benzing
Chair of the CMMC
