Our New Lab Equipment - A CAS Story!
- Created on 08 June 2021
- Last changed on 08 June 2021
Creativity, Activity and Service.
Recently, our science department was gifted with some slick new laboratory equipment. Two large lab centrifuges and a mini one for Eppendorf tubes. These donations from the UMC Utrecht pathology research department were gratefully secured by two of our DP students as part of their CAS project. These students not only achieved their initial purpose of sourcing new equipment, but have also created a partnership with UMC for future donations. On top of this, together with the support of their CAS supervisor they were also able to donate some of the equipment to a clinical laboratory of a hospital in need in Razlog, Bulgaria. WOW!
We asked our resourceful students about the purpose of their project …
“It's basically a project contacting multiple universities and research groups in hopes that they have some old equipment up for donation. The purpose of this was to both avoid the equipment simply being thrown out and to get some equipment that the science department didn't have that they could use to make education more hands-on.”
Violeta, one of the brilliantly dedicated members of our science lab team and supervisor of this project was thrilled with the additional equipment and how they would be able to help extent the possibilities for students in our labs …
“… they will mostly be used by DP students for extended essays or internal assessments (IAs) but can find application for some simple experiments in the lower grades.”
Initially, our students found the amount of ‘no’s they received surprising but they kept emailing! Eventually, their persistence rewarding them, us and also a delighted and appreciative lab in Bulgaria. A big thank you to the UMC Utrecht.
“I am very happy and proud of them, because despite the difficulties and obstacles they met in times of lockdown, they showed that recruiting equipment donations is still a possible task … a true example of if there is a will, there is a way!”
We agree with you Violeta, we too couldn’t be prouder of these two students and what they have achieved!