Western Canada High School Visit

They say that “if you want to master something you should teach it”, and HPI trainees take that very seriously, so some of us visited the Western Canada High school to meet with the Science Club and do what we do best… talk about parasites!

Students from the Science club were interested in learning about drug-resistance so we started the visit with a presentation about parasites, how we deal with them using anthelmintic drugs, how these parasites become resistant and finally the successful story of the discovery of the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin, that led its discoverers’ to win the Nobel Prize in 2015.

After the talk and answering some questions from students we went hands-on to play some interactive games with  students.  The first one, “The travel board game” teaches the players what kind of parasites they can get when they travel, how to avoid getting infected and information about the disease, all these while they are traveling around the globe trying to make their way home safe and parasite-free. The second game, “The drug-resistant game”, where you must come up with a strategy to treat your cow with anthelmintic drugs before selling it. Both games were a total success and we received positive feedback about them.

Lastly, we showed some parasite samples from the UofC VetMed collection to the students, this part is always the one that catches everyone’s attention. Students could see some microscopic preparations of some protozoa parasites like Giardia and Leishmania as well as some ticks, tapeworms and roundworms while they are addressing questions about their lifecycle and the diseases they cause.

We received great feedback from students and the teacher, and we were even asked to come back in the fall to do another presentation.We would certainly go back to keep spreading our passion for parasites!