Close to 200 students at Correlieu Secondary School in Quesnel will be getting a unique and rare experience inside the world of genomics and genetics.
Genome BC’s Geneskool will visit the school today and tomorrow to introduce students, through several fun workshops, to the study of genomics in a fun and interesting way.
Education Manager of the Geneskool Science Outreach Program, Alex Chattwood, explains the reason for the visit
“We find quite often teachers are struggling to access life science resources across the Province so we try to fill that gap. We come up with workshops that are tied to the things that kids are already learning in the curriculum whether that be to do with how genes contribute to the next generation or how DNA is turned into protein inside the body”.
Chattwood said the goal of the workshops is to spread awareness of how cool genetics and genomics is and what job fields they can be used in.
“We do quite a lot of work in forensics where genetics has quite a big component, looking for DNA at a crime scene, or analyzing blood samples collected from crime scenes and things like that. We certainly have a little bit going on as related to police and forensics and understanding how crimes can be solved using genetics and genomics for sure”.
Chattwood said the feedback given by teachers is really great and students always seem like they’re a lot of fun after a visit from the Genome BC Geneskool Science Outreach Program.