Year 3 Science Ambassador Afternoon

Year 3 enjoyed a visit from a STEM Ambassador today. Elaine Borthwick from Pfizer UK came in to teach the children about how medicines are made, how long research takes, the money involved, different types of medicines for different ailments and how much effort goes into keeping us healthy.

The children then had to create a road map from research to delivery before embarking on making a life saving SLIME medicine. All the slime came out in different colours and the purpose was to show that using different ingredients or in the wrong quantities, the medicine might work or not.

The children were really engaged and inquistive and came up with some fantastic questions and answers. Thank you very much to Elaine for providing a fantastic session for the children.

Some facts which we learned today:

It costs £1 billion to take a medicine from research to the chemist.

It takes almost 12 years for the medicine to be approved after all the clinical trials are completed.

Out of 25'000 components used at the start of the research process only about 25 will end up being used.