Workshops

This extensive program involves a holistic introduction to research and applications of Biological Sciences through Problem Based Learning (PBL) approaches and Role Playing (RP) team tasks.

The course is delivered in 3 phases through 3 classes per week. Each phase will address one of three aspects:

1) Introduction to biological sciences

• What is biological research?
• What are the various fields available to someone with a degree in biological sciences?
• What does a day in the life of someone working in the field look like?
• Opportunities to change fields?
• What is the possible societal impact?

2) Case Studies and discussion-based workshop

• Case study in COVID-19 research
• Case study in Cancer Research
• Addressing student questions based on case study, and general questions in the fields.
• Activities to pursue towards building your CV for university in biological sciences.

3) RP-based PBL workshop<

• Students will be divided into teams of five, and each assigned a role in their preferred industry
• The problem to tackle will be a simulation of COVID-19 testing of patient samples and publishing a paper
• The RP activity will help students get a better understanding of the position and responsibilities in each field.

This program consists of 11 hours of Online Synchronous Learning & 3 hours of Assignments & Asynchronous Learning.

The facilitator, Ritobrata is an alumnus of Imperial College London, where he was awarded the Dean’s Prize. He is currently a PhD fellow studying cancer metastasis at the Centre for Genomic Regulation, Spain where he was awarded the Severo-Ochoa PhD fellowship. Outside cancer, he has been heavily involved in COVID-19 testing and research during the current pandemic. Ritobrata also constantly mentors students and provides career counselling. He has previously taught courses in academic research, publications and statistics.