3Rs at Universidade Júnior

Every summer, a group of high school students from schools all around Portugal have the opportunity to learn about the behaviour and welfare of farm, companion, and laboratory animals – and practice some of their new knowledge in measuring behaviour and welfare. These are 16 and 17-year-old students participating in Universidade Júnior at the University of Porto, specifically in the module Animal Behaviour and Welfare organized by the Laboratory Animal Science group at i3S – Institute for Research and Innovation in Health. This module focuses on animal welfare, from the perspective of ethics and from the perspective of science. The participants learn about research methods in the field and about how to house and handle different types of animals taking their behaviour into account.

The module starts with an introductory day, followed by three thematic days focusing on laboratory animals, companion animals, and farm animals. Each thematic day includes a small field study, where the participants get to practice what they have learned about research methods in observations of living animals. The 3Rs and especially Refinement is of course in focus during the laboratory animal day, which includes a small study of the preference of zebrafish for different types of environmental enrichment. 

Participating in the module means being challenged with lots of new knowledge. This includes quite a lot of theory – we’re scientists after all! – but delivered in as playful a way as possible. Students come to us after a long and stressful school year, and we don’t want them to feel like this is another week of school! 

See this blog post for more details and photos!