Training
ABE UK supports science teachers and technicians in secondary schools and colleges by providing training workshops that equip educators with the skills and confidence to deliver engaging biotechnology sessions within their own classrooms. The ABE UK programme is tailored to the national curriculum, and provides hands-on molecular biology student activities matched with key stage 4 and post-16 specifications including GCSE, A level, T level and BTec. In addition, there are practical activities suitable for KS3 students.
There is no charge for teachers to attend training workshops or to borrow the equipment and reagents needed to carry out the experiments. Our CPD develops participants’ knowledge of biotechnology theory, technical and practical skills, including restriction enzyme digestion, ligation reactions and agarose gel electrophoresis, bacterial transformation, DNA profiling and PCR (polymerase chain reaction). It is practical – offering first-hand experience of activities that students will undertake, including producing a functional protein from genetically modified bacteria.
Teacher and technician training typically takes place across our hubs in June and July each year to enable participating schools and colleges to take up kit loan in the next academic year.
Course 1 comprises a two-day introduction to DNA manipulation, with both teacher and technician attending Day 1 and the technician attending Day 2. Course 2 extends the practical work and comprises a one-day course for both teachers and technicians with follow-up 1-hour online session the following day.
Kit loan
ABE UK provides, free of charge, a loan of all equipment, materials and reagents needed for participating schools and colleges to train the students in their own classrooms. This kit loan is typically of a two-week duration.
Please consult the list below of standard lab equipment that you will need access to when planning for the loan of the ABE kit.
- –20⁰C freezer (for storing iso-freeze box containing samples)
- Ice machine or cubes (crushed) for lab set-up
- Water-bath or hot-block @ 37⁰C (LAB 2 & 9) / @ 70⁰C (start of LAB 3) / @42⁰C (LAB 6/6a)
- Set of plastic/glass beakers for disposal of tips & tubes (1 beaker per pair of students)
- Elga grade / distilled water – LOTS - approx. 400 ml per pair of students – less if using MiniOne
- Microwave – to prepare agarose gels
- Foil-covered bottle 500–1000 mL (for storing gel red solution)
- Autoclave / pressure cooker for preparation of media for bacterial transformation (LAB 6 only) and disposal of waste tips & tubes.
- Virkol or equivalent disinfectant when using E.coli (LAB 6/7 only)
All schools that borrow kit must complete a risk assessment in advance of the loan. Please check current CLEAPSS guidance for updates. Schools that wish to borrow kit, subject to the above, please complete the school planning form.
A signed Health & Safety and Insurance advice form will need to be returned prior to borrowing the kit.
An important reminder that the kit comprises the equipment to run the labs with 12 pairs of students - we assume that your students will work in pairs. We can provide reagents and consumables for you to run the labs multiple times to accommodate more students; however, the amount of equipment in the kit does not change.
Feedback
The programme is free to you, but in order to know what we're doing well and what might be even better we depend on your feedback. This feedback is part of the programme rather than an optional extra and we require your feedback following CPD and following kit loan. We also require that participating students provide feedback. Occasionally we will request feedback on ad hoc events or as requested by the programme office.