Virus Factory in Schools - Rosalind Franklin Institute

Home → Artificial Intelligence and Informatics → Virus Factory in Schools

Welcome to the home of Virus Factory in Schools!

Below, you’ll find resources to help with your delivery of the standalone workshop, 3-workshop series, and maths extension workshop, including links to download electronic and printable materials, our “Ask a Scientist” video playlists, and details of how to book into our Franklin researcher Q&A webinars.

Overview

The three workshops are based around viruses and microbiology and use citizen science as a way to show your pupils that they are capable of making meaningful contributions to real research science and of going on to become research scientists. The workshops are designed using the science capital teaching approach.

The overall structure of the workshop series is background science, citizen science, computing science and Q&A. The standalone workshop is a condensed version which covers less computing science and has less time spent on the participatory citizen science. It has no time built in for meeting a researcher and we suggest a follow up session to allow your pupils to do so.

The background science uses your pupils’ knowledge of living things as its starting point and from there introduces cells, DNA and viruses while reinforcing skills such as observation, collaboration, communication and use of ICT as key scientific skills.

The additional maths workshop uses the concepts and results of the main workshop/workshops as a way to practice statistics in a real-life context, helping students to understand how maths allows scientists to move from making observations of images to answering big questions.

Links to Resources

Full course materials, including an educator guide, are available for download on Zenodo here. The Virus Factory citizen science project page can be found here, and zoo-notes can be found here.

Franklin Researcher Q&A Webinars

Details for the first Franklin researcher Q&A webinar will be published soon.

"Ask a Scientist" Video Playlists

The playlist contains 8 videos lasting between 2 and 5 minutes, taken from a series of interviews with researchers working at the Franklin and Diamond Light Source, recorded in February 2023. This forms an offline alternative to live Q&A options such as local STEM ambassadors, “I’m a Scientist” events, and the Franklin Q&A webinars. The playlist is hosted on the Science Scribbler YouTube, and the Franklin Vimeo.