ARTICLES
Finding a Mentor for Your Science Extension Student
By Troy Garrett
It’s Term 3 and the conversations are starting again about what
subjects students will be dropping and, more importantly, picking
up. Of note is the newest course to come from NESA, Science
Extension. https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/
nesa/
in the design and delivery of a structured approach to linking
outreach-oriented academics and high school students.
Called SciX@UNSW, the programme team has been hard at work
this year scaling it up to support many more students who are
interested in the areas of research the university specialises in and
have secured 16 projects across the entire Faculty of Science.
The projects range from Astronomy data analysis to designing
and testing 3D-printed wing segments in the university’s wind
tunnels. Projects were created to satisfy the broadest range of
student interests.
Teachers have noted that one of the most challenging problems
about the new Science Extension course is the availability of
researchers willing to help our next generation of young scientists.
Last January, a small group of educators and researchers at
the University of NSW identified that this may be a problem, and
ran a small pilot of seven Science Extension students through a
summer school mentoring program to test an idea of providing
research opportunities for our most passionate senior science
students. The outcome of the pilot provided valuable lessons
More details can be found by visiting science.unsw.edu.au/scix
and students can register their interest in the program for when
applications open later in the year.
The UNSW Team (Troy Garrett, Dr Laura McKemmish, Assoc. Prof. Elizabeth
Angstmann), Kerry Sheehan, the PhD Mentors and the 7 pilot students at the end
of the Summer School.
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SCIENCE EDUCATIONAL NEWS VOL 68 NO 3