Within the 6 ^th edition of the Catalonia - La Pedrera Foundation's continuing education programme "Teachers and Science", on 21 and 28 May, 2014 from 5 to 8 pm, the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE) conducted a training course for high school teachers. 

The course, coordinated by IBE researcher Josefa Gonzalez, enjoyed the participation of David Comas and Laayouni Hafid, both researchers at the IBE and the Department of Experimental and Health Sciences (CEXS) at UPF, and Roberto Torres, communicator and head of communication of the scientific project "Science In Your World". The course also included a visit to service Genomics facilities hosted by Roger Anglada.

During its two sessions, sixteen high school teachers worked at the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB) on concepts of evolutionary biology such as genomic diversity, the founder effect, and genetic drift, among others, through the presentation given by the researchers about their research lines and the latest achievements in these lines.

The course involved the participants right from the start, even days before the course got under way. Using online forms that were sent in the days before and after each session, researchers and teachers jointly decided what concepts should be dealt with in each session, what topics they wanted to delve into, and what concepts would be most appropriate to introduce in the classroom, according to the current curriculum.

The dynamics of each session consisted of a comprehensible presentation on the current research undertaken by investigators, adapted to the participants' academic level and expectations, a generous round of questions and answers to clear up any doubts and to hear the impressions of the participants, and finally, a useful "Focus Group" led by Roberto Torres, in order to make use of the suggestions, advice and experiences of the participants so that they can teach this knowledge in class more dynamically and effectively.

As a result of course, work is currently being carried out to develop educational materials and a class activity that researchers, teachers and communicators agreed on to facilitate high school students' learning of the concepts developed in their course. The group is to meet again in September 2014 to evaluate educational materials, the activity and determine the details of their implementation. All materials developed will be made available to schools in Catalonia free of charge. 

Through their participation in the Teachers and Science programme, the IBE and the two institutions that comprise it, Pompeu Fabra University and the Spanish National Research Council, aim not only to bring their research activities close to schools but also actively contribute to developing the teaching materials to facilitate educational work.

Reference:

"Evolutionary genomics: mechanisms, causes and consequences of the current genomic diversity of human populations."