Teachers' Workshops

The Biochemical Society tries to organize a workshop for A-level biology teachers each year. The workshops are designed to deliver up to date knowledge and practical experience The Society invariably receives very positive feedback from those attending, so watch this space for future workshops in your area. A report of the most recent one is given below.

"Excellent lectures and practicals and unfailingly good humoured presenters and facilitators"

The above comment was typical of the responses of delegates at the Teachers' Workshop held in London in July. The Society's London Regional Group collaborated with Imperial College and the Science Museum to organise the one-day workshop for teachers of post-16 science on the theme 'Biochemistry, Genes and Disease'. The workshop's capacity of 30 delegates was greatly over-subscribed, indicating the perceived value of these events, and feedback to the organizers confirmed that the course was well received by delegates. The Science Museum has already reserved July 13 2001 to run another Workshop!

The course began with John Schollar (National Centre for Biotechnology Education, NCBE) leading a practical on DNA extraction. Neil Fairweather (Imperial College) gave a talk on how knowledge of bacterial genomes was leading to novel approaches to antibiotics and therapies, and Mahendra Deonarian (Imperial College) on his group's innovative anti-cancer approach. This involved targeting antibodies to cancer cell markers; a coupled plant enzyme released cyanide locally from a systemically administered sugar derivative. Discussions with the delegates showed that these talks were much appreciated, being well-chosen, exciting science, and delivered at a level that they could understand. Hopefully the delegates will have noticed the extensive media coverage when the anti-cancer work was presented at the British Association meeting in September. After a talk on the services that the Science Museum provides for teachers and students the delegates were shown round the new Wellcome Wing of the museum.

In the afternoon the delegates undertook a series of linked practicals based on the role of abnormal aldehyde dehydrogenase (AldDH) in causing alcohol intolerance. Restriction enzyme digests of AldDH DNA from control and alcohol intolerant individuals were separated by gel electrophoresis, and the pattern of banding observed. AldDH activity was then determined colorimetrically in liver digests taken from the individuals. And lastly, delegates completed an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to determine the presence or absence of a particular epitope on the AldDH from the individuals. Neil Fairweather discussed the interpretation of the results, and this was amplified in a booklet distributed to all delegates. The experiments were very well linked, and most of the delegates appeared fascinated, not least because nearly all achieved excellent results. Congratulations must go to the organizers and to the lab technicians.

Teachers were asked to comment on the day, and to complete a questionnaire that gathered information on how the Society could help them. Some other comments were...

"...a very useful and informative day-helpful background for my A-level biology course"

"...activities and speakers easy to follow and very informative"