Senator Patrick Burns Junior High School Visit

HPI’s Community Engagement program is impressive and inspiring in the sense that it provides a platform for young researchers to communicate with people from outside the scientific community. School visits are about the best part as they provide us with the opportunity to inspire kids to pursue science.

One such school visit was organised by our efficient team to Senator Patrick Burns Junior High on April 5^th, 2018. It was my first one as a part of HPI and I have to admit, I was excited as well as intimidated as the day approached. We were asked to explain the process of drug resistance in parasites to a group of 8^th graders. It was a packed schedule for all of us amidst classes and exams, yet there was a handful of HPI volunteers.

We presented to two different classes. A few board games and parasite samples were used as bait to captivate the young minds in the classroom. Like every other room filled with teenagers, the atmosphere was bustling and the students took their time to settle down. Soon, the class fell silent as we started our presentation (I must admit, I was surprised). In the interest of time, everything was thoroughly planned so that we would be able to make the best of a short period. The class actively participated in raising doubts and never shied away from answering the thought-provoking questions that were directed at them.

At the end of the presentation, a short game was organised to test the class’s understanding of drug resistance. HPI’s indigenous “selling the cow” game was set up and the students played it with a lot of enthusiasm. Once this was done, we divided the class into two groups, one to play the remaining board games and the other, to view the parasite samples. The students had a lot of fun going around the table which held a variety of parasite samples, some freaking out by looking at the samples while the others were thoroughly amazed by what was on display. It felt as though the forty minutes had passed in the blink of an eye.

The school visit was an enjoyable experience for me as well as the others. It brought back memories from when I was in school. Growing up, I was an inquisitive student who was always in awe of the way things worked around me. Biology never failed to amuse me and I knew from a very young age that I wanted to pursue science. Thanks to my teachers and other activities in my school, I was able to follow that dream of mine. The happiest moment of the day was seeing the amazement in the eyes of the children. Even if it was through a short presentation and a few board games, we were certain that we had inspired at least a couple of the students to pursue scientific research. It was this satisfaction that made the visit an unforgettable one. I can say, without a doubt, that the future generations will produce better scientists.

A note of thanks to Nicole Lamboo, STEM Learning Leader at Senator Patrick Burns for inviting us into her classroom. I would also like to thank the HPI Community Engagement TOC members Chenhua, Susan and Adam for planning this visit. Of course, it goes without saying that Teresa has done an awesome job in putting together the whole thing and for always being our pillar of support.