Xplore Health

What is Xplore Health?

Xplore Health is a European educational programme coordinated by IrsiCaixa and “la Caixa” Foundation with participative multimedia and hands-on resources with the aim to decrase the gap between health research and education. The programme promotes Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE) and the interaction of students with different social actors for them to become active citizens in the knowledge society. It is run through the internet, schools, research centres and science museums.

Xplore Health is structured according to 8 thematic modules:

• How are drugs developed
• Biotechnology
• Genomics
• Skin cancer
• Malaria
• AIDS
• Mental Health
• Obesity

Innovative multimedia resources in each module:

• Virtual experiments: performing experiments on line, following the steps of state of the art research and using “virtual” and real lab equipment. Example: Participate in the research to develop a vaccine against HIV
• Games: enjoying, playing and learning about the latest in health research at the same time. Example: Stop Malaria
• Videos on current research: meeting the investigators who are performing the research in different labs around Europe and learning about their projects. Example: Reading the book of our DNA
• Debates: playing card games and stimulating debates around ethical, legal and social aspects (ELSA). Example: Biotechnology and ethics
• Worksheets for students: giving teachers hints on how to implement the Xplore Health resources in the classroom while promoting Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE) and Responsible Research. Example: Interview a researcher working on cancer
• Protocols of experiments: helping science museums and reseach centres to offer workshops with experiments inspired of current research lines. Example: Investigate the AIDS vaccine

Xplore Health also offers an outreach programme with courses for teachers, workshops with experiments and a Network of pilot schools.