GOING FROM HIGH SCHOOL TO UNIVERSITY: AN EXPERIENCE TO INTRODUCE THE STUDENTS IN BIOTECHNOLOGY CAREER

Nowadays, in Spain it is detected that one of the main problems of the high school students is the lack of knowledge about the content, applications and utilities of the careers that the students can study. In several cases, bad selection provokes that students begin a career and during the course this does not meet the initial expectations and this fact yield the school failure. For this reason, secondary school programs must be designed to help students in the transition to colleges and universities. Currently, there are several extra-scholar activities in which colleges and universities collaborate for providing information about the study program and the scientific activities developed in the university. Under this premise, several "Summer Science Campus" of scientific and academic approach are developed in different International Campus of Excellence in Spain. These projects are specially designed and led by university and secondary education teachers in order to these young students take the first contact with the University in a funny way and to present the specific skills and basic knowledge necessary to obtain a career. Taking into consideration these aspects, this last year in the University of Vigo, several experiences were programmed in its International Campus of Excellence (Campus of Sea Knowledge in depth) in order to make known Chemical, Biological and Engineering studies to students of fifteen and sixteen years. This paper describes the activities developed during the summer of 2011 in order to introduce the secondary high school students in the Biotechnology career in the University of Vigo.