Overview

The interest in understanding the microbes that live in our bodies, shaping us and supporting or disrupting our well-being, is growing exponentially. The self-paced course “The microbiome in health and disease“, organised by EMBL’s Science Education and Public Engagement team, aims to give an overview and deep dive into the field of microbiome research and help educators teach the topic in class.

The free course will run online from 27 November 2023 to 13 January 2024, allowing educators and anyone interested in learning more about the microbiome to join at any time and explore the course content at their own pace. At the end of the course, you can obtain a certificate of attendance by completing a short feedback questionnaire.

Please note: This course includes content from previous EMBL “Introducing your microbiome” courses. In addition to previous content, a new scientific talk, scientific discussion, learning and teaching resources have been added. In addition, a brand new pedagogical activity is now available to teach the impact of the microbiome on our health and disease.

Who is this course for?
This course is aimed at formal and informal educators, as well as teacher trainers and teachers in training.

It will also be useful for science professionals and anyone interested in learning more about our microbiome.

Learning format

All the course content is accessible online for the course duration. The course content is divided into three sections, depending on your level of understanding and interest:

• Introduction to the human microbiome

• Current microbiome research

• Teach the microbiome in class

The course workload is based on the time needed for covering some “recommended” content in the form of pre-recorded talks and pedagogical materials that might be of interest to you. However, the time you spend on the course may vary based on your interests.

What will you learn in this course?

By the end of this course, you will:

• Gain insights into current developments in human microbiome research
• Discover research topics related to the microbiome in health and disease
• Get to know and practise exclusive hands-on, flexible teaching resources on the microbiome basics, phylogenetic trees and bioinformatics that can be used directly in the classroom.

The course will also enable you to:

• Broaden your resources for teaching the microbiome in secondary schools
• Expand your network of international teachers and science educators

Organiser

This training course is organised by EMBL’s Science Education and Public Engagement office in collaboration with the EMBL-EBI Public Engagement office and in partnership with Merck.

Science Education and Public Engagement
EMBL’s Science Education and Public Engagement office shares the scientific discoveries of EMBL with young people, teachers and the diverse public in Europe and beyond. Our education programmes convey complex, cutting-edge topics in life science research in an exciting and insightful way, fostering the discovery of current research trends, the scientific method, and scientific career paths. Our teacher training courses empower educators to bring modern life sciences into the classroom. Visit our website for further information about our activities.

EMBL-EBI Public Engagement office
EMBL-EBI science and technologies are increasingly central to the life sciences, from human health to agriculture and biodiversity, and indirectly impact the lives of everybody in society.
Public Engagement at EMBL-EBI:
We’re on a mission to share EMBL-EBI’s work with the wider community on our doorstep and beyond. To do this, we work directly with public groups to develop opportunities that bring people together to listen to and learn from each other whilst exploring bioinformatics and its impact. We are focusing on building long lasting relationships with groups in the community that have a little exposure to data science and to what we’re trying to achieve. Our work is for everyone, and we want people to know that.
We aim to enable and empower our staff and students to share EMBL-EBI’s science and technology in context through a mutually beneficial process of engagement with the public through audience-focussed activities. EMBL-EBI public engagement works closely with the Wellcome Genome Campus Connecting Science Public Engagement team to promote and support public engagement activity within EMBL-EBI. Our staff and students regularly engage with a varied public audience both on-site; through formal and informal group visits and teacher CPD, and off-site; at community science events and festivals, outreach to schools and informal groups.

For more information about the EMBL-EBI’s Public Engagement Office visit: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/about/public-engagement.

Merck, a leading science and technology company, operates across life science, healthcare and electronics. More than 64,000 employees work to make a positive difference to millions of people’s lives every day by creating more joyful and sustainable ways to live. From providing products and services that accelerate drug development and manufacturing as well as discovering unique ways to treat the most challenging diseases to enabling the intelligence of devices – the company is everywhere. In 2022, Merck generated sales of € 22.2 billion in 66 countries.

Registration

Registration will be open from 27 November 2023 to 13 January 2024, giving you maximum flexibility to attend and explore the content we have in store.

Follow the link to secure your spot: https://forms.gle/tzLZytRYr44pcGBN6.

We hope to see you there!