The scientific education project VacunAcció has returned to the classrooms for the fourth consecutive year. This 2023/24 academic year, the activity has been carried out with baccalaureate students from Institut Bellvitge within the educational tandem promoted by IDIBELL and the educational center. Unlike previous editions, this year both scientific and artistic students have been involved, and over two months they have participated in three work sessions, guided by researchers from the IDIBELL and ICO Infections and Cancer research group, and by members of the IDIBELL Communication Unit.
With informative talks, dialogues, autonomous work and gamified dynamics, VacunAcció has challenged students to fight against misinformation and fake news, and to learn more about vaccines: what they are, how they are obtained, what herd immunity is, where we can find reliable information and how anti-vaccine movements have negatively impacted the population’s global health.
In response to the main challenge of the project, the students have carried out final projects consisting of awareness campaigns about the benefits of vaccination, informative and scientific dissemination posters, and audiovisual materials to counteract fake news and anti-vaccine movements. Aimed at various age groups and designed to be disseminated in various communication channels, the creations have been very diverse and creative: a rap song, a social media spot aimed at teenagers and young people, comic strips for Instagram, posters for nursing professionals, a brochure for children, a poster for pediatry waiting rooms… And also explanatory posters about vaccine functioning and types, their origin, or the evolution of anti-vaccine movements. And, finally, a poster reflecting the results of a survey carried out by the students themselves, which sums up the social perception of vaccines in the Bellvitge neighborhood and in the city of L’Hospitalet. After working on them as a team, the students presented their campaigns during the final session of VacunAcció.
As a whole, the activity has been based on project-based learning and has ultimately sought to enhance the critical spirit of students and equip them with tools that allow them to differentiate between alarmist, conspiratorial or “alternative” messages, which defend ideas that have not been demonstrated, and facts and evidence about vaccines effectiveness. This way, we wanted to contribute to train citizens with a critical mind, capable of identifying and refuting messages without scientific basis.
In this year’s edition, VacunAcció has counted on the involvement of researchers Raquel Ibáñez, Beatriz Serrano, Laura Asensio, Maryam Choulli, Arnau Guasch and Ginesa Albero.
The Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) is a biomedical research center created in 2004. It is participated by the Bellvitge University Hospital and the Viladecans Hospital of the Catalan Institute of Health, the Catalan Institute of Oncology, the University of Barcelona and the City Council of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat.
IDIBELL is a member of the Campus of International Excellence of the University of Barcelona HUBc and is part of the CERCA institution of the Generalitat de Catalunya. In 2009 it became one of the first five Spanish research centers accredited as a health research institute by the Carlos III Health Institute. In addition, it is part of the “HR Excellence in Research” program of the European Union and is a member of EATRIS and REGIC. Since 2018, IDIBELL has been an Accredited Center of the AECC Scientific Foundation (FCAECC).