EPIBOOST VISITED BY HIGH-SCHOOL STUDENTS

Two students from the Institute of Education and Citizenship (IEC, Mamarrosa, Portugal) were with us for an intense 3-day internship. From December 19th to December 21st, they have been learning the daily routines of laboratories involved in EPIBOOST at the Department of Biology of the University of Aveiro and CESAM. During these days, students were guided by different EPIBOOST researchers and colleagues from the LER lab for a broader coverage of research activities. In this context, EPIBOOST is especially grateful to Inês Macário, Guilherme Jeremias, Albano Pinto, Cátia Venâncio and Sofia Lopes.

As this internship was not an observation-only activity, the students had the opportunity to renew Daphnia cultures that are being used in EPIBOOST, prepare all the necessary media to maintain EPIBOOST organisms, which included the understanding of materials adequacy, glassware cleaning and decontamination, food preparation, incubation conditions for cultures and assays. Nucleic acids quantification using spectrophotometry (Nanodrop) and quality analysis via electrophoresis could not be missed and the students performed amazingly in this first experience with such type of research work. There was the opportunity to set up an assay with fungi, which allowed the students to understand the requirements of testing in ecotoxicology, including experimental design details, replication needs and recommended good laboratory practices. Finally, and benefiting from the large offer provided in this period of the year, the students selected MSc thesis of their interest to attend the public discussion of the works.

EPIBOOST is grateful to the IEC and to the two amazing students that were with us, sincerely hoping that they enjoyed this project activity as much as we did!