Me, my health and my children's health
PI: Marcus Grace
The initial pilot project for LifeLab was funded through a Wellcome Trust People’s Award.
Students visited their local university hospital medical research facility and gained first-hand experience of modern biomedical practices and techniques.
The project enabled students to:
The project ran for one year (Jan 2009-Jan 2010) and employed two teachers part time to trial and evaluate the feasibility of running LifeLab activity days
You can read the paper here.
The project was very successful, two Southampton state schools participated – Redbridge Community College and Upper Shirley High - and it culminated in a schools’ conference and celebration event attended by parents and local dignitaries, at which the students showcased their science posters and took part in a debate around health issues.
This pilot study measured students’ knowledge and views before and six months after the LifeLab visit.
Key findings were that the one-day LifeLab visit created a sustained understanding that early life nutrition can have a long-term effect on our health, and it raised students’ interest in taking science beyond compulsory schooling and following science-based career.
Upper Shirley High were commended for taking part in Lifelab in their school’s Ofsted report