Midlothian Science Festival Schools Programme
October 2019: CIR researchers run ‘Your Amazing Immune System’ and ‘Supercytes’ workshops at local schools in partnership with the Midlothian Science Festival.
In the game-based workshop 'Your Amazing Immune System: Operation Colodenum', we asked primary school pupils to put on their security hats and protect alien biome Colodenum from destruction. Through interacting with the 'good' and 'bad' microbes using a range of special equipment, the teams discovered what the immune system needs to keep the body healthy.
Workshop leader Donald Davidson then shared stories, images and animations of current and eradicated diseases, vaccines, antibiotics and the importance of the bacteria inside us, known as the microbiome.
The Supercytes workshop taught secondary school pupils about the cells of the immune system through a strategic card game.
Katharin Balbirnie-Cumming, Matthew Burgess, Donald Davidson, Jiwon Park, Susanna Riley and Lana Woolford delivered the workshop to four schools across the county as part of the Midlothian Science Festival Schools Programme.
The game was great and everyone was excited to play. The presentation was pitched perfectly.
Pupils particularly enjoyed learning about the story of Edward Jenner and the first ever vaccine against smallpox. All of the schools said that they would recommend the workshop to others.
We would like to thank Cuiken Primary, Penicuik High, Newtongrange Primary and St David's RC Primary Schools for inviting us to deliver the workshops. Your enthusiasm, teamwork, great questions and feedback were a joy to see!