Roche Continents

Roche plays an active role in representing the company's activities in genetics and genomics towards employees as well as towards the public, in carrying out education and stimulating dialogue.

What is the Roche Genetics Education Program?

The Roche Genetics Education Program is a multi-facetted offering comprising the complementary components of educational resource materials, teacher guides and educator training. Often in cooperation with external partners, Roche has developed several programmes and resources which it makes available to educators and the general public.

What are the Program components and how do they work together?

The Roche Genetics CD-ROM, is an interactive CD-ROM developed to promote basic awareness of genetics among the general public and to offer an interactive tool for learning the basic principles of genetics. It has been available online in an increasing number of languages over the past years and was also a supplement in two major scientific publications, Nature and Scientific American.

The Roche Genetics Education Program Teacher Manual, is an online or hardcopy teacher’s resource for the above CD-ROM. The manual has structured the information contained on the CD-ROM for use by science teachers in the classroom to provide a variety of intectually stimulating approaches to broaden the understanding of genetics. The resource can be supplemented by one-day teacher workshops, which bring to life the lesson plans, sample classroom activities, websites and assessment strategies provided by the Teacher Manual.

Experience with such workshops has been gained by the various Roche affiliates in the US (Nutley, New Jersey, Florence, South Carolina, Pleasanton, California and Indianapolis, Indiana), as well as in proximity to the company headquarters in Basel, Switzerland.

The Roche Genetics Education Program Experiment Manual is a teacher resource that helps bring the world of science and laboratories into the classroom. A full set of laboratory equipment, reagents and living cells give teachers and students the opportunity to gain hands-on experience with applied genetics. Premiered in Germany as the Blue Genes Kit as early as 1999, it has since also been made available for other European countries and the US.

Facts & Figures

CD-ROM distribution

• >1.5 million copies including copies obtained through Scientific American and Nature

• 36 thousand online requests . i.e. an average of 1,000 a month . from over 113 countries

• available in six languages with five more planned

Teacher Manual and training

• training provided for 200 teachers in Switzerland and the USA

• available in English and German

Experiment Manual

• Over one thousand experimental kits distributed in Germany, with an annual use of several hundred reagent sets

• Approximately 50 teachers trained in Switzerland and the USA

• Often joint workshops are conducted to combine the benefits of hands-on experience and academic and ethic underpinning

• Material available in English and German

What impact does it have?

The programmes provide teachers and students and ultimately the general public with insight, understanding and enthusiasm for genetics, its applications and future potential in health care. The programmes identify Roche as a leader, catalyst and collaborator in current and critical areas of the life sciences.

Why?

Roche’s core value of innovation thrives on the long-term availability and sustained engagement of talented minds, disciplined researchers, visionary scientists and energised partners. These programmes help to ensure that science students achieve and excel.

Who are our partners?

- Life Science Learning Center, University of Zurich

- BioValley College Network

- New Jersey Science Education Leadership Association

- Science South, South Carolina

- William Paterson University, New Jersey

- Schools, teachers and educational institutions in Germany, Switzerland and the US

Further information:

- Roche Website 

- Blue Genes Program Germany (only in German)

- Roche Annual Report

- Roche Global Sponsoring

Contact:

Vivian L. Beetle, Corporate Donations and Sponsorship, Roche Basel, Switzerland 
Phone: +41 61 687 51 94; e-Mail: vivian_l.beetleanti spam bot@rocheanti spam bot.com