January 13, 2014
Learning Labs expands its outreach
The highly successful UOW ‘Learning Labs’ program has started today (13 January) in a new expanded format.
Due to a growing demand within the local community, the gifted and talented program for high school students has now been extended to include primary school students from Year 3 to Year 6.
The primary school program, called ‘Early Learning Labs’, is being held on 13 and 14 January at Wollongong’s main campus. Workshops will be led by teachers with specialist training or a specific interest in gifted education.
Early Learning Labs has proved to be extremely popular with all workshops full and many more students on waiting lists. Some of the workshops offered will focus on debating, digital media, LEGO robotics, maths, music and Egyptian history.
Conducted by the School of Education, Learning Labs Project Officer, Sarah Smith, has been steadily building the program since its conception in 2012.
The program, ‘Learning Labs’, for high achieving students in Years 7 to 10 will continue again this year and is running on 16 and 17 January. This session will include workshops on the main campus as well as two new workshops to be held at the Innovation Campus. The new workshops will be ‘The AIIM Experience’ and ‘Look Deeper into Astronomy’ to be held at the Science Centre and Planetarium.
“We are really excited to be able to offer our students an opportunity to see what technologies there are at the Innovation Campus. As with our workshops on the main campus, the workshops at iC will be facilitated by leading academics, researchers and in the case of the astronomy workshop, it will be the Director of the Science Centre; Glen Moore,” Ms Smith said.
Students attending the AIIM workshop will be involved with nanotechnology, race car engineering and the latest in 3D printing.
Learning Labs workshops cover a range of academic disciplines such as cognitive psychology, engineering, law, literature, creative arts, industrial robotics, medical science and genetic engineering.
“We plan to give gifted and talented students from the region something different to what they can achieve at school –a real university experience with a variety of dynamic and challenging workshops,” Ms Smith said.
Photo/filming/interview opportunities
There will be photo/filming/interview opportunities tomorrow (Tuesday 14 January) – contact Sarah Smith on 4221 3348 for specific times. See also http://socialsciences.uow.edu.au/education/workshops/learninglabs/
Pro Vice-Chancellor (Inclusion and Outreach), Professor Paul Chandler, will be speaking to students and parents for the opening ceremony of Learning Labs at 9.25am on Thursday 16 January in the University Hall.
And there will be a range of photo opportunities on Friday 17 January during the workshops.
For all further information contact Sarah Smith on 4221 3348 or Adam Thorogood on 4221 5645.