Story
Discovery is fun
Children from Freiherr vom Stein High School in Leverkusen are totally fascinated by their experiments.
Bayer opened its first Baylab student laboratory in Wuppertal in late 1998. Today there are four. Over 26,000 students have attended their programs to date.
Julien adjusts his goggles, smoothes his snowy white lab coat and looks around eagerly. “Cool. That looks good on you,” one of the girls says to him. The 18-year-old is pleased, and not only with his appearance. The student from Genoveva High School in Cologne also likes what he sees around him. When a fellow student calls out enthusiastically, “This looks just like in NCIS on TV,” Julien nods in agreement.
Baylab baykomm
What is nanotechnology? Why is vitamin C so important? How does human genetic diagnostics work? These are the questions young researchers study at the BayKomm Baylab.
Baylab plastics
At Baylab plastics, it’s all about plastics. Students here can slip into the role of designer, researcher, engineer or communicator.
The Baylab concept
Bayer opened its first Baylab student laboratory in Wuppertal in late 1998. Today there are four. Over 26,000 students have attended their programs to date.
Baylab health
In independent experiments, children and young people at Baylab health explore principles in chemistry, biology, physics and medicine.
Baylab plants
At the student lab in Monheim, young people see a new and exciting side of crop protection and genetic engineering.
The futuristic Baylab, at the company’s Communication Center in Leverkusen, has nothing in common with a conventional school chemistry lab. At the center of the big (some 1,600 square feet), bright room are laboratory tables arranged in two semi-circles, offering enough space for a total of 30 students. The blackboard has been supplanted by the world of multimedia. “I’ve never seen a lab like this. Now I really wonder what they have in store for us,” Julien remarks impatiently. The name Baylab stands for “Bayer” and “laboratory,” for experimentation and fun with the natural sciences, but certainly not for rigid learning.
Bayer Board member Prof. Dr. Plischke and junior researchers at the new Baylab.
Sensing this, the students are avidly attentive when things finally get started. The exercise for the day is unusual: the junior researchers are to track down the largest chromosome in their own DNA, namely D1S80. Project leader Dr. Annemarie Simons explains how to proceed: “Take saliva from the inside of your cheek and put it into the sample container, so we can isolate the DNA from it.” The molecular biologist, who previously worked in research at Bayer, is available to help Julien and his classmates today, together with biochemist Dr. Eleonore Rohloff. The two natural scientists show the young researchers important methods, such as pipetting, centrifuging, isolating everything in the right order. Julien listens closely to the instructions of his temporary teachers. First, he mixes a lysis solution into his saliva to break up the cells and access the DNA inside. Then he removes the cell membranes in a centrifuge. Now he can begin isolating his DNA.
In their biology class, Julien and his fellow students already learned about a method for replicating DNA outside a living cell. But this afternoon, when they finally see the largest chromosome from their own DNA right in front of them, they are truly amazed. Student representative Hana Naveh: “I had only seen this in books before. It’s much more fun in practice!” Now and then teacher Joern Roth looks over his students’ shoulders, and is very pleased with what he sees. “We could never afford to do in school what they do here. That’s why we’re dependent on places of learning outside of school,” the teacher explains. “Young people who later want to work in research can experience a real laboratory here at the Baylab. It’s very impressive.” Julien is happy, too: “We would never be able to do experiments like this at our school.” He is all the happier that Bayer has given him the opportunity. His take on it: “This is really great.”
The Baylab at BayKomm is the company’s fourth student laboratory. The other three are managed by the respective subgroups and their programs for students differ accordingly (see page at right). Over 26,000 children and young people to date have conducted an independent experiment in one of the student laboratories. The success of the Baylab concept is evidenced by Bayer CropScience’s “Baylab plants,” which received an award from the Germany – Land of Ideas initiative, whose honorary chairman is Germany’s Federal President Horst Köhler. Similarly, “Baylab health” received the NRW Corporate Citizenship Award in 2005 from the German State of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Tracking down your own DNA
For the company, however, the student laboratories are just one program among many for promoting education in the natural sciences. For instance, the fascination of the natural sciences is also the theme of the Making Science Make Sense initiative. Launched in the USA in 1995, this program now encompasses twelve countries on three continents. Participating employees visit schools and introduce children to thought processes in the natural sciences, just like in the Baylab concept. Student representative Hana: “It really is something unique, tracking down your own DNA.” Pro-ject head Annemarie Simons also has only praise for the concept: “Theoretical coursework in school provides the foundation. But it’s performing their own experiments that really sparks the interest of children and young people in the natural sciences.”
The Opening
The Opening
Some 150 guests from the worlds of politics, public administration, schools and other educational institutions attended the grand opening of the newest Baylab in Leverkusen. Bayer Board member Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Plischke emphasized in his address the importance of supporting education. “We want to expose young people at an early age to the fascination of the natural sciences. As an inventor company with diverse research activities in Germany, the Bayer Group depends in the long term on a well-educated next generation of employees, particularly since most of the major trends of the future will demand all the innovative force we can muster.” Reinhard Aldejohann, a representative of the North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry of Schools and Further Education, also praised Bayer’s activities. The new Baylab, he said, is a great source of motivation to students, capable of kindling an enduring interest in the natural sciences.