High school Marine and Life Science teachers were invited to participate in the BlueBiobankBiotech (B-cubed) workshop co-organised by BlueRemediomics partners from UWC on April 12, giving them an opportunity to learn more about the world of marine microbial genomics.
The training initiative co-hosted by BlueRemediomics partner, the Institute for Microbial Biotechnology and Metagenomics (IMBM) at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) along with DIPLOMICS (Distributed Platform in Omics) aimed to offer both theoretical knowledge and practical skills to the participants along with an opportunity to network with experts in the field.
As part of the one-day event, teachers received practical training in using modern genomic technologies and even sequenced the genomes of marine bacteria collected from the South African coastline, participating in the research effort as they were catalogued in the National Microbial Biodiversity BioBank.
Speaking during the event promotional video, one of the teachers commented how it’s essential to understand marine microbiome communities, as they tell us about ocean ecology and population dynamics and that they were delighted to share all the knowledge gained with their students!
All in all, an important workshop to transfer knowledge and make marine science more accessible now to secondary school teachers and their students, encouraging their interest from a young age!
Watch the video of the event: