In challenging times, Laboratório Aberto reinvented itself

Despite the restrictions imposed by the ongoing pandemic, Laboratório Aberto closed the academic year 2019-2020 with four Ciência Viva summer internships, having received a total of eight secondary school students over a month. Before that, with schools closed and study visits canceled, the teams from Laboratório Aberto (LA) and Laboratório Aberto de Biologia e Saúde da Maia (LABS | Maia) knew how to reinvent themselves and maintained their initiative at a distance by using digital platforms.

The start of the Ciência Viva Summer Internships at a national level took place at LA on July 14th with a visit by the Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Manuel Heitor, the president of Agência Ciência Viva, Rosalia Vargas, and the director of i3S, Claudio Sunkel. "Our goal with these internships", explains Luís Cirnes, coordinator of LA and LABS | Maia, was “to provide a personal and scientific training program in a real research context”.

Precisely because they consider experimental activities to be essential to awaken new ways of thinking and foster a taste and interest in Science, at the onset of confinement the LA and LABS | Maia teams started developing several scientific activities adapted to different ages and that could be carried out at home, all of which had one result in common: providing “scientific” moments in the family.

Among the activities developed, the projects “LA em CASA” and “LABS em CASA” stand out - which consist of a portfolio of experimental activities with a list of the required materials and reagents, procedure, theoretical explanation, as well as the conclusions. The activities were designed for students to develop, with the reagents of daily life, at home with the family and/or with their teachers/educators. In addition, the experimental activities were accompanied by online clarification sessions to overcome any difficulties the students had.

With a focus on secondary school students, some activities were also adapted where students had the opportunity to simulate the use of molecular biology techniques in the context of the study of hereditary cancer. Also for high school students and, continuing the pilot project of LA “(H)á conversa com …” (“Have a conversation with”), online lectures were promoted by researchers from i3S who talked about their work with students.

Currently, the LA and LABS | Maia teams are preparing the new academic year taking into account the current pandemic situation, observing the instructions from the Institute's Board of Directors, DGS, and the Ministry of Education.