Hands-On Learning
That day, the faculty hosted first-year high school students from a biology-chemistry profile class from the CLV High School of the Heroines of the Warsaw Uprising in Warsaw. The workshops, which lasted from 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., were led by Sylwia Lewandowska-Pachecka from the Department of Biochemistry and Pharmacogenomics, and Dr. Łukasz Pajchel from the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Biomaterials. The class was divided into two groups. While one group participated in thin-layer chromatography workshops, the other one carried out spectrometric analyses.
“We are working with thin-layer chromatography. The students applied standard solutions of various amino acids and their mixtures, and then each student received their own samples to identify,” explained Sylwia Lewandowska-Pachecka, who led the chromatography workshop. “We want high school students to become familiar with the methodology of thin-layer chromatography, which is used, for example, in COVID tests and pregnancy tests.”
Dr. Łukasz Pajchel spoke about the spectrometric research. During his classes, students used a spectrometer to analyze a tablet of a popular painkiller to check whether it actually contained the active ingredient shown on the packaging. Another task involved examining three coffee samples and determining which one was decaffeinated. The students had at their disposal two spectrometers, so each of them could try their hand at the equipment.
Part of a Larger Project
The workshops are not a one-time event — they are part of a larger program that the Faculty of Pharmacy has been running for several years in cooperation with high schools. Every year, around a dozen and twenty high schools participate, not only from Warsaw but also from nearby towns such as Pruszków, Piastów, and Skierniewice.
This year’s edition includes 19 classes from 12 high schools. The workshops will continue for another week, with an additional session planned for September. Importantly, each group works on a different topic, making the program highly diverse.
Pharmacy Is More Than Working at the Chemist’s
One of the goals of the workshops is to show young people that pharmacy offers far more career opportunities than just working behind the counter at the Chemist’s. Students learn about professions such as laboratory diagnostics, scientific research, and careers in the pharmaceutical industry.
It is also a good opportunity to realize that the workshops help students understand which school subjects are essential for pursuing these studies — without biology, chemistry, and mathematics it is hard to understand all this.
Workshops as a Reward
What is important is that participation in this year’s workshops was not random. Only classes whose representatives entered an art competition organized by the Faculty of Pharmacy to celebrate its 100th anniversary were invited to take part.
The workshops proved that science does not have to be boring — especially when students can perform experiments themselves and, for a moment, feel like real researchers.
