MIND
Winter 2014
11
Penrhos professors participate in ground-breaking program Sixteen hard-working Penrhos students have earned the opportunity to participate in the ground-breaking Penrhos Profs @ Perkins Program this year. The program is the result of an exciting new partnership between Penrhos College and the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, and aims to offer a STEM (Science, Technology, Mathematics, Engineering) education program to capable Penrhos students by immersing them into a real life application of a typical STEM career pathway – medical research. Maths Mentor Coordinator Peter Chandler said it was a very exciting development. “Penrhos College is fortunate to be the first school in Western Australia invited to take part in an inaugural education program. This is an amazing opportunity for girls interested in medical research and will provide a useful background for their Mathematics and Science studies at school. “The Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research recently opened a new centre at QEII – this is a state of the art research centre with some of the state’s top medical researchers involved,” Mr Chandler said. The program runs for 20 weeks during Terms 2 and 3. Students attend the Harry Perkins Institute once a fortnight for a two-hour session. A flipped classroom* approach utilising device technology is combined with some more traditional lectures, laboratory investigations, with a rigorous and ‘up close and personal’ immersion into the real world of Western Australian medical research.
The course allows students a unique opportunity to work with real medical research scientists and be challenged to question, explore, think, collaborate and discover solutions to some of our most complex health issues affecting Western Australians, including cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Alinda Lee
The course content is broad-ranging, with sessions focusing on everything from particular areas of medical research, to ‘Countless cool career options in medical research’ and ‘But should we? ethical discussions around medical research’. The Penrhos Profs @ Perkins Program was officially launched on Monday, 28 April at the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research. Acting Principal Rob Taylor was in attendance to convey his congratulations to all those involved.
receive their coats The Penrhos professors
Harry Perkins Institute Community Education Manager Pauline Charman said,“It was great to have such a talented group of girls in the Lotterywest BioDiscovery Centre. Even after the first session the students really grasped the importance and excitement of medical research.We hope the next 15 weeks will open up new career possibilities which they wouldn’t have dreamt of before taking part in this program.” Year 11 student Alinda Lee said she looked forward to learning more about what a medical career path might involve. “I decided to participate in the Penrhos Profs @ Perkins Program because it will not only allow me to gain valuable knowledge within areas of interest, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes, but also give me a sense of what it will be like if I were to pursue that particular career path.” *The flipped classroom describes a reversal of traditional teaching where students gain first exposure to new material outside of class, usually via reading or lecture videos, and then class time is used to do the harder work of assimilating that knowledge through strategies such as problem-solving, discussion or debates. (Vanderbilt University, Center for Teaching). SOURCE: http://www.uq.edu.au/tediteach/flipped-classroom/what-is-fc.html
Girls watch a
demonstra tion by Paul ine Charm an