COME IN AND TRY OUT!

Journey Through the Laboratories and Workshops at Roche

In this laboratory task, we would combine ink and water, and using distilled water, methanol, and acetonitrile, we would separate the ink substance from the water; this process is called chromatography. We used blue ink in distilled water, then added methanol and acetonitrile, separating the ink from the water. This was cool as we had never seen this before. Here we improved our German because of the instructions and people, which were in German and they were quite complex. We were also surprised by how excellent the laboratory was and how they set up everything neatly for us.

In this experiment, we made a solution by mixing salt with ice, to make it even colder than it already was, it was very fun to see the results change so quickly! I found that my ability to read the German label for the instructions was very good. I was able to do any experiment in the laboratory whilst reading the instructions with ease. I think that the laboratory was one of the best activities because it was very interesting, informative, and fun!

Ella: “I think that this opportunity to go to Roche in Kaiseraugst was both very helpful and interesting for our future careers, as well as beneficial to our German interaction skills. The activities in the lab were what I enjoyed most: conducting experiments with different instruments and chemicals. It allowed us to listen and respond back in German and engage in useful conversations that will further our German learning. Overall I found this trip a great opportunity for those including myself who would consider exploring a career in medicine or science in the future, thank you to Frau Meier for arranging this for us!”

We have five sample medicine boxes and one of them is the correct box. With the magnification glass, we have to search for the other four medicine boxes and we have to compare them with the correct medicine box. We have to identify the mistake in the boxes and write it down on the sheet of paper. We had to write what the exact mistake in the box was and how it was different from the correct medicine box. Overall, this was a very fun task to do and it made me concentrate and stay focused.

We are using a soldering iron to create a circuit board to power a functioning lightbulb. It was a cool and interactive way to try something new and we really enjoyed this experience. We were also able to gain more experience with speaking German in a new context, as the entire program was in German. Overall, the trip was a really helpful experience, because it shows us what we could possibly be doing in the future after we graduate. We learned new things about ourselves and things we like to do, and the fact that it was all in German was a new and beneficial way to use the language outside of a classroom setting.

Ashika: “ I found this trip to be a very enjoyable and enriching experience as we were able to experience and develop skills needed in the three main courses we did. The first was a science-based experience, the second was a desk job and the final one was a workshop experience. We were given many activities within these three fields to explore, which allowed us to understand the skills we needed to develop if we were to choose a similar career path. I personally enjoyed the science lab experiments the most and this experience has now allowed me to understand that exploring career paths involving science would be a good choice for me. Furthermore, being able to experience and experiment in person as opposed to learning about these careers in class allowed me to get hands-on experience on what the path would be like. This trip also allowed me to put my German skills into practice and to understand how well I would be able to work in a German-speaking environment.”

I am using a wire cutter and pliers in order to bend a long piece of metal into a paperclip. It was quite hard to get the wire at a straight 90º angle, but nevertheless, I kept trying. In the end, I was semi-successful (with a not-so-straight paperclip). I really enjoyed this trip, and learning about the wide array of jobs available in pharmaceutical companies. When I grow up, I would possibly like to work in one of these companies, however, on the medical side. This trip was very fun and unique, and really let me see what is available for me when I leave school. I loved it!

We had to solve a brain teaser of sorts, where we were given a ball that could be constructed and deconstructed from just two pieces that were not symmetrical. Using as few cuts as possible, we had to recreate the contraption with a chunk of clay, which we morphed into a ball and used the knife to cut the clay. We had various ideas on how to approach this puzzle, some of us tried to go with a few cuts and work from there, whereas others tried to mirror the object cuts whilst navigating both balls and keeping track of each cut.