School classes borrow an infection researcher

Teresa Frisan, professor at the Department of Molecular Biology at Umeå University.

ImageTomas Bergström

The pupils were very active, and we had a lot of fun!

Teresa Frisan shared her enthusiasm for microbial research and interacted through Zoom with eight classes – in seven different schools spread over Sweden. The groups consisted of second and third-year pupils from the Natural sciences programme at the upper secondary school.

What was your goal with the lesson?

”My goal was to give the pupils a sense of what it is like to be a researcher. I hope that I could inspire them.”

How did you achieve your goal?

” I tried to have an active session. I posed several questions and had the students work in groups for 2-3 minutes before we discussed their answers together. I asked them to imagine what a researcher looks like and how they think a researcher’s mind works.”

”Next, I introduced the topic of toxins, explaining why bacteria have them as part of their virulence factors. I focused on a specific group of toxins that target DNA, known as bacterial genotoxins. We discussed the consequences of DNA damage in cells, and I asked the pupils to design an experiment to determine the biological role of these toxins in the context of an infection.”

How was the ambiance?

”The pupils were very active, and we had a lot of fun! Some teachers wrote me afterwards to say that they were very pleased with the active participation approach.”