“This is great. We get a clearer view of the world of science and universities. I expect to get more insight and learn more about what it means to do a Ph.D. – and to learn more about Lund University,” says Alexander Lundh from the Tycho Brahe gymnasium in Helsingborg, where he just completed his second year at the technical program.
“You really get to consider what to do after graduation,” says Joanna Persson who studies science at a high school in Hässleholm.
“It’s a rare opportunity to be inside the labs, seeing new innovative ideas. It was great fun to be part of creating gold nanoparticles, for example. I also found it really interesting to look in the microscope, and see what things look like. In school we study maths and theory – here, you get to see how it all can be used practically. See theory in context,” says Jennifer Cately from S:t Petri School in Malmö.
All three of them happily refrain from the first couple of well-deserved summer vacations.
“Seeing how things work and learning about important research that is going on is really fascinating. These are things you don’t get to see otherwise. Conducting experiments, not knowing what the results will be! Yesterday we got to do microfluidics. That includes biology, how to separate bacteria – medicine and how it can be linked to physics and nanotechnology,” says Joanna Persson.
The program, Forskningsnätet Skåne, (Researcher’s net, Skåne), is an association of five secondary schools in Skåne that have decided to give high priority to scientific perspectives in their teaching. Since its start in 2012, more than a hundred young students have got the opportunity to get acquainted with the everyday life of a researcher. Some twenty different departments and institutions at Lund University, Malmö University, and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences participate.