Bringing biobanking and pathology closer to children in hands-on workshops – A suitable engagement model for citizens and for paediatric patients
What happens in the hospital and what with blood taken or tissue removed? What is a biobank? What does a pathology laboratory?
Since five years now, BBMRI.at – in collaboration the Med Uni Graz Pathology institute – offers hands-on workshops for biobanking and pathology to children at different ages ranging from 3 to 13 years. BBMRI.at works close together with kindergartens, primary and high schools.
The latest so-called Kids University Course was held 27 Sept 2022, where nearly 50 children from two different schools could become biobankers and pathologists themselves.
In different stations they could perform typical biobanking and pathology laboratory work and experiments, such as freezing tissue, staining tissue sections and watching tissue from different organs under the microscope. In addition, the children learned about the human body with its organs and their functions.
Aim of the workshops is to bring biobanking and pathology closer to the younger generation and raise awareness on the existence and importance of biobanks and pathology institutes and to make it more tangible for them.
Some impressions below:
