The Association l'Arbre des Connaissance was founded by researchers to promote dialogue between producers of science and society. http://arbre-des-connaissances-apsr.org/
The Apprentice Researcher action is coordinated for the INM by Genopolys. It allows the reception in research laboratories throughout the school year of middle and high school students, supervised in pairs by research actors (researchers, doctoral students, post-doctoral students, engineers). Normally, 10 Wednesday afternoons during the year, students carry out a scientific project on a research topic from the laboratory. The last session was to take place at Genopolys, during which the students present their work in front of a large audience composed of their family, friends, professors and members of their host research team. This work could be used in their curriculum, for example for the Brevet des Collèges oral examination.

This year, the congress was held virtually, with each speaker being filmed during his or her speech, most of which took place live, on the day the congress was scheduled: Wednesday 10 June 2020. The editing was carried out by Ambre Renault-Faivre d'Arcier, intern at Genopolys.

 

 
After a presentation by Benjamin Bourdon of the Association L'Arbre des Connaissances and its action, with in particular an overview of the Apprentice Researcher program throughout France, we heard the feedback from 2 of the 3 teachers involved this year: Sophie Lacas, from the Lycée Jean Jaurès in St Clément de Rivière, and Christian Jaubert, from the Collège Frédéric Bazille in Castelnau-le-Lez (the 3rd teacher was Claudia Le Gall, from the Collège Les Garrigues in Montpellier).

 

 

 

Jacques Cavaillé, Inserm regional delegate, then expressed his attachment to the participation of Inserm teams in this programme (10 teams out of 11 coordinated this year by Genopolys are affiliated to Inserm!).

 

 

 

We then moved on to the scientific presentations. Some students did not wish to appear on the screen, so in some cases we have sound but no image.

 

For each team, the supervisor(s) and the host team introduced themselves and their team, the pair of Apprentice Researchers and the subject.

Here, Frédéric Michon (Avenir Cornée team), who, with Ana Cathia Magalhaes, supervised Océane Roussignol and Clémentine Cabanel.

 

 

 

The apprentices were then asked to give a 10-minute presentation together, following the classic format of a scientific presentation, starting with an introduction to the topic.

Here, Chahnez Medini and Suzy Martinez, the Apprentices supervised by Paul Gratias (team 2 Audition), presented their topic on hearing.

 

 

 

 

During these presentations, we observed that the young people undestood their subject matter, and were able to present the techniques they had used (in this case PCR) with clarity and confidence.

Here Adèle Ferrier and Elsa Ramos, supervised by Richar Younès (team 5, Motoneuron).

 

At the end of the presentation, the apprentices were asked to give their impressions of this training course and what it had brought to each of them. One thing that came back very regularly was that they discovered the friendly atmosphere of a laboratory and their happiness to discover what really happens there.

On the screen are the impressions of Marie Ghilberti and Noé Bouchareychas, who were supervised by Laura Dumas (Avenir Corticogenesis team).

 

 

Find the whole congress on Youtube :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhFgohO4PMw

Many thanks to all the supervisors for their availability, their passion and their pedagogy, which enabled them to make this internship exciting, constructive and unforgettable for all these youngs, and which gave them a vision of the research that will remain with them, whatever their future choices. Thank you to the students for their will to discover, their assiduity, and also their work during this confinement to carry out this presentation with their fellow student and their supervisors despite the virtuality of the preparation. Thank you to the teachers for their motivation, which each year allows this meeting between the school world and the scientific world. And a big bravo to all of them!

If you would like to become a supervisor of apprentice researchers next year or if you still have questions before you start, do not hesitate to ask them. Newly motivated young people will be looking for host teams next year!

Contact : Péquignot Marie