Last week (on July 22, 2011) the closing ceremony of the MSC Summer School 2011 took place in Poznań (Poland). Results of the learning evaluation and student game were presented and certificates were awarded to the participants. The next MSC Summer School will take place in July 2012 in Portugal.

Student Iuliia Demchuk (University of Tartu) talks about her impressions of the summer school: “Generally, I’m very satisfied with the participation in this summer school and I have very positive impression about it”.
Here are some of her specific comments:

1. Visit to the Ecology Station in Jeziory

• This was an interesting practical tutorial about sample preparation and a good possibility to spend the whole day in the open air.

2. Visit to accredited lab

• It was very interesting to see the ISO 17025 standard “in work” and have the possibility to ask questions about the work of ISO. It is always useful to see the labs for chemical, physical and microbiologocal analysis. And the “smelling room” – that was something new for me!

3. The “role playing game” (contest of student teams)

• A good chance to work with people from different countries and a possibility to learn something new from the members of your team. It is very educative to experience interaction with the customer like in “real life”

4. Comments about the material presented during the lectures:

• As I’m a physicist, my knowledge in the field of chemistry is not deep. So it was at times quite difficult for me to understand some of the examples presented. Maybe the differences in the background of different people should be taken more into account in the future and the examples will be made better understandable for everyone.