{"id":708,"date":"2014-07-01T09:30:52","date_gmt":"2014-07-01T07:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.embl.de\/?p=708"},"modified":"2020-03-24T14:25:19","modified_gmt":"2020-03-24T13:25:19","slug":"1407_ambassadors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/lab-matters\/1407_ambassadors\/","title":{"rendered":"Back to school"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Led by the European Learning Laboratory for the Life Sciences (ELLS), the ambassador scheme is a platform for EMBL scientists to share their experience of living and loving research, and rekindle school students\u2019 enthusiasm for enquiry and discovery. Going into classrooms \u2013 real and virtual \u2013 across Europe and beyond, the ambassadors\u2019 diaries show how much fun they are having in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n<hr class=\"vf-divider\"\/>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&nbsp;<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-865\" src=\"http:\/\/news.embl.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Tischler_verena.jpg\" alt=\"Tischler_verena\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\"\/><\/figure>Verena Tischler, PhD student<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>October 2013, ELLS Design Thinking Workshop, Heidelberg, Germany<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019d never heard of \u2018design thinking\u2019 \u2013 a creative, team-based process to solve given challenges by developing and testing new ideas. Beforehand, I undertook training to learn more and go through the process myself. I was soon standing before a crowd of kids talking about \u2018big data challenges in the life sciences\u2019. Instructed by an expert from software giant SAP, I assisted the teams as they addressed related issues. It was amazing how enthusiastically they engaged in the process, and how well they presented their own solutions!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"vf-blockquote\"><p>It was amazing how enthusiastically the&nbsp;pupils&nbsp;engaged in the process<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-864\" src=\"http:\/\/news.embl.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Sysoev_Vasily.jpg\" alt=\"Sysoev_Vasily\"\/><\/figure>Vasily Sysoev, PhD student<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>December 2013, Moscow, Russia<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Home for Christmas, I used the opportunity to talk to high school students about my work: DNA sequencing and the discoveries it has made possible. My first audience \u2013 an extracurricular biology club at my former school \u2013 easily grasped the presentation and together we delved into more advanced details. The following talks were to younger, broader audiences, who were no less interested in the topic. I learnt that these talks had sparked interest in biosciences: the teacher answered many more related questions in subsequent lessons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"vf-blockquote\"><p>I learnt that these talks had sparked interest in biosciences<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-866\" src=\"http:\/\/news.embl.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Viosca_jose.jpg\" alt=\"Viosca_jose\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\"\/><\/figure>Jose Viosca, Postdoc<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>March 2014, Rome, Italy<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A friend, a teacher in Rome, showed great interest in bringing his students into contact with EMBL. Connecting with the school via the ELLS Science Chat web platform, Federico Rossi in Heidelberg and me in Monterotondo gave live talks about ourselves and our work. Without doubt, the best part was the students\u2019 questions: so many current scientific challenges were broached, unprompted, by the class. The experience was as stimulating for me as it was for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"vf-blockquote\"><p>The best part was the students\u2019 questions: so many current scientific challenges were broached, unprompted<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>School ambassadors show next generation that scientists are more \u2018role model\u2019 than \u2018mad professor\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":712,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[28,413,41,42,43,74,514],"embl_taxonomy":[],"class_list":["post-708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lab-matters","tag-bioinformatics","tag-ells","tag-genetics","tag-genomics","tag-heidelberg","tag-monterotondo","tag-rome"],"acf":{"article_intro":"<p>What does it mean to be a researcher? Practising scientists know very well that research is not an off-the-rack career: it is multifaceted, exciting, challenging and rewarding. Helping the next generation recognise that a scientist is more \u2018role model\u2019 than \u2018mad professor\u2019 is the task of a growing team of EMBL School Ambassadors.<\/p>\n","related_links":[{"link_description":"More about the Scheme and how you can get involved ","link_url":"http:\/\/www.emblog.embl.de\/ells"}],"article_sources":false,"vf_locked":false,"featured":false,"color":"#007B53"},"embl_taxonomy_terms":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Back to school | EMBL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"School ambassadors show next generation that scientists are more \u2018role model\u2019 than \u2018mad professor\u2019\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/lab-matters\/1407_ambassadors\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Back to school | EMBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"School ambassadors show next generation that scientists are more \u2018role model\u2019 than \u2018mad professor\u2019\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/lab-matters\/1407_ambassadors\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EMBL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/embl.org\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-07-01T07:30:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-03-24T13:25:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/1407_ambassadors_1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"465\" \/>\n\t<meta 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