iMDC03 zum Download (pdf)

Campus and People
Learning for Life
Text Christine Minkewitz, Barbara Urban
tran s lation Carol Oberschmidt Photos Gläsernes LAbor
In January 2012 the Life
Science Learning Lab
“Gläsernes Labor” conducted
a new experiment:
Ten ninth graders took
part in a compact internship
of up to three weeks
to experience first-hand
what it is like to work in
science professions. This
project was supported by
the Freundeskreis of the
MDC Berlin-Buch.
Each year around thirty high school
students do a student internship in the
Life Science Learning Lab. There they
become acquainted with work in the
different labs –- the GenLab, MaxLab
and the ChemLab – and assist in
courses that are led by scientists from
the research institutions on campus.
A special internship in January 2012
offered an entirely new format: Ten
young people from Berlin high schools,
including Robert Havemann High
School, Konrad Duden High School and
Ernst Reuter High School were given
the opportunity to try out what other
aspects a lab internship can offer.
“The basic idea of the student
internship is to be able to get acquainted
with professional fields while still
a high school student,” said Helga
Fenz, director of the science division at
Robert Havemann High School, partner
school of the Life Science Learning
Lab. “An internship can increase a
student’s desire to choose a particular
profession, but it can also raise doubts
and lead to a different career choice.
For students with scientific ambitions,
the offer of the Life Science Learning
Lab is a unique opportunity, because
research means much more than just
carrying out experiments. The young
people take the new experiences they
have made here back to their schools
and report about this in presentations
to their teachers and classmates.”
Besides learning about theory and
performing experiments on “Genetics”,
“Polymerase Chain Reactions” and
“Protein Isolation”, the students
carried out research on specific topics.
“The methods of scientific research
also have to be learned. An Internet
search doesn’t just mean looking up
something in Wikipedia,” said Ulrike
Mittmann, staff member in the Life
Science Learning Lab. The young people
can benefit from all of these skills. This
view is shared by Nicolas Reschke (14),
a student from Konrad Duden High
School. He used the student internship
to focus on biological and chemical
questions in more detail. When he
visited the MaxLab with his class in
June 2011, he was welcomed as the
hundred thousandth student to visit
the Life Science Learning Lab, which
has been in operation since 1999. Now
he is delighted to have received one of
the coveted internship places. “I think
that in a research group with normal
laboratory work, such intensive guidance
and supervision like we receive
in the student internship would not
be possible,” he said. “The internship
76 imdc03 2012