Razika Berboucha
Lampton School, London
TECHNICIAN
A Physics Technician at Lampton School, Razika is passionate about her subject. She received the international Gratnells Science Technician of the Year Award for 2018/19.
She often takes a role in explaining the scientific knowledge behind experiments in the classroom. She takes her role seriously.
“I am supposed to demonstrate to the students if the teacher is not a Physics specialist. My knowledge in Physics and my experience in teaching have helped me to better understand the needs of students. I appreciate the reaction I get from the students and seeing them grasp a new and challenging skill makes my job worthwhile,” reflects Razika.
IRIS’ work is very important as it gives students the opportunity to access real life research.
Razika values the role research can play in a young person’s education. She led her school to become the greatest contributor to IRIS’ Genome Decoders project, with 44 students completing more than 2,700 annotations. Her students were asked to showcase their work at the Wellcome Genome Campus in Cambridgeshire.
“IRIS’ work is very important as it gives students the opportunity to access real life research.
We have a national shortage of scientists and engineers and with IRIS projects I can see students getting more attracted to scientific degrees and research at university level,” says Razika. “It also gives them an opportunity to boost their CVs.”
Razika says she also gained new skills through IRIS projects, like classifying stars through James Webb and curating genes for Genome Decoders. Vertigo gave her the opportunity to master the use of MATLAB software and allowed her to put her Physics knowledge to the test.