This August, the EPSRC Digital Health Hub for AMR delivered a hands-on workshop as part of the Bridging the Future Summer School, a programme designed to upskill and inspire young people from refugee, migrant, and asylum-seeking backgrounds through STEM education.
The summer school, run by the charity Bridging the Future, provides opportunities for students aged 16–21 to explore new areas of science and develop confidence in their educational and career pursuits. Our AMR workshop was led by three volunteers: Rande Dzay, a PhD student at Bangor University, with support from Cara Roberts (Bangor University) and Igor Pantea (Imperial College London). Nearly 30 students took part in a two-hour practical session on cultivating bacteria from contaminated water samples, giving them a real insight into microbiology lab work.
Students worked individually to learn how to prepare dilutions, plate samples on agar, and observe bacterial growth under controlled conditions. Guided by the volunteers, they explored key microbiology concepts, including:
What antimicrobials and antibiotics are, and why antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing global challenge.
How serial dilution and agar plating are used in research to study bacterial populations.
How to interpret bacterial colony growth by examining colour, morphology, and abundance on different plates.
Throughout the session, the students showed huge enthusiasm and curiosity, asking questions about AMR’s impact on human and environmental health and how scientific research can help address the problem. We asked students to fill out a short evaluation form and we found that after attending the workshop:
· 93% of students understood why AMR is a problem
· 88% of students now knew what AMR means
· 85% of students understood how scientists investigate AMR in labs
“It was an interesting workshop and one that I would like to follow in my career”
“It was the perfect pace for learning”
Workshops like this demonstrate the power of practical, hands-on STEM education in inspiring young people and helping them see themselves as future scientists, engineers, or healthcare professionals.
We are grateful to the Bridging the Future team for the opportunity to contribute to such an impactful programme and look forward to taking forwards key learnings from this workshop and engaging with even more young people in the future.
