Genetics Workshops

Genetics Workshop is a practical Study Day organized by the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB) for upper secondary school students, in which students can participate in laboratory work and conduct various DNA tests. The Study Day introduces the field of genetics and its possibilities.
In schools teachers often do not have either time, competence or resources to conduct genetic experiments complementing school program, in contemporary labs. At the same time, practical experiments help students to get deeper understanding about the knowledge they gain in biology classes. 

During one study cycle, 240 upper secondary school students from different schools in Estonia get their first practical experience in labs in our university. Conducting the Study Days, the institute closely collaborates with the Bioscience Students’ Association to find the supervisors and with the Union of Biology Teachers to disseminate the information, find schools to the project and carry the experiments out in most useful way.

In the study year 2019/2020, the workshops were planned to March, cancelled in connection with the Covid-19 pandemic. Two more times, in March and November (2021), epidemic forced us to cancel. The workshops were successfully carried out in 2022 and 2023 and the next session will be in March 2024. 

Genetics Workshops were launched in 2013, since 2018 they have been hosted by the IMCB. 

The person behind the idea of these Study Days is an enthusiastic teacher of biology, science popularizer, the alumnus of the IMCB, Mari Järve (PhD). The cooperation with Mari Järve to improve the workshop is still ongoing. 

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Genetic Workshops were awarded with the main prize of Science Popularization in November 2019 by the Estonian Research Council.