The next generation of citizen scientist
By Kymberley Scroggie, Breaking Good
High School students take part in E$$ENTIAL MEDICINE$ during half day workshop.
Forty year 9 and 10 students from various Sydney high schools have recently become citizen scientists as they scoured the internet for information about important life events, contributing to the E$$ENTIAL MEDICINE$ Circle of Life challenge during a half day workshop run by the Breaking Good team last month.
Students spent the day learning about the World Health Organization’s (WHO) list of essential medicines – those that satisfy the priority healthcare needs of the population and that everyone should have access to at all times, in sufficient amounts and at affordable prices.
Learning this definition and thinking of medicines in their own homes, students engaged in conversations about which medicines they deem essential and why. Medicines can be natural products, such as artemisinin an antimalarial derived from the Artemisia annua (sweet wormwood) herb, a traditional Chinese medicine. They can also be synthesised synthetically in the laboratory such as rendesivir (a medicine used in the treatment of COVID-19 patients), or their discovery can be completely serendipitous like that of penicillin.These were discussed with students, while sharing the stories of famous medicine discoveries and histories.
The students then transformed into citizen scientists completing the Circle of Life challenge investigating the history of Betadine, Aspirin, Claratyne and Truvada (PrEP) and presented the findings of their online research to the whole workshop.
The workshop was designed to inspire students to think about chemistry in a broad context considering its medical and public health implications. The workshop content aligns with the curriculum covering aspects from all three content areas; science understanding, science inquiry skills and science as a human endeavour. “Brought together these three areas provide a greater worldwide perspective on science development and the social and economic aspects that influence human health,” said Genevieve Firmer, a senior science teacher and member of the Breaking Good team.
The workshop is the most recent instalment in the E$$ENTIAL MEDICINE$ project. It was designed and presented by Genevieve Firmer, Dr Yaela Golumbic, Associate Professor Alice Motion, Dr Kymberley Scroggie and Zimeng (April) Wang.
The Breaking Good team would like to thank the Partner Engagement and Outreach team from the University of Sydney, in particular Caitlin Fisher and Holly Kershaw for their help in setting up and running this workshop.
Do you want to contribute to the project? Take on one of the E$$ENTIAL MEDICINE$ challenge today!
The Breaking Good Team will be running more E$$ENTIAL MEDICINE$ workshops in 2021. Find out more and register your interest here.
