Castlebrae Community Campus Workshop
A team from the MRC Centre for Reproductive Health on Edinburgh BioQuarter hosted two ‘Ready, Steady, Grow’ workshops at Castlebrae Community High School with S3 and S4 pupils on Thursday 25th August.
The enthusiastic students learned about the challenges of creating a new life from the successful fertilisation of an egg to the growth and development of an embryo, and what is required to ensure the creation of a healthy human.
The students participated in microscope activity to discover how cells grow and change and what happens when cell growth goes wrong.
They played ‘jigsaw cell match’ to reveal the role of different cells and organs within the body, experimented with fluorescence, and worked out the different stages of embryo foetal development by examining mouse embryos.
The event concluded with a lively Q&A and those who had participated in the workshop were invited to ask questions about different areas of reproductive health research and what a ‘typical day in the life’ of a scientist looks like. A discussion took place about the different possible career trajectories for those with a science skillset and the medley of career options available.
This was a great opportunity to engage with the local community and to encourage an interest in science and research.
The MRC CRH team facilitators were Ginnie Clark, Rocio Martinez Aguilar (Maybin lab), Nikki Graham (Pollard lab) and Grace Forsyth (Mitchell lab)
MRC Centre for Reproductive Health
The MRC Centre for Reproductive Health (MRC CRH) has an amazing 50 year history and conducts world-class research developing therapeutic and preventative strategies to improve health and reproductive outcomes.
Currently located within the Queen’s Medical Research Institute, the Centre will move to a new location in the new Institute for Regeneration and Repair (IRR) towards the end of 2022 which will provide a wider research environment and co-create new collaboration opportunities on Edinburgh BioQuarter and across the University campuses.
