Children’s University - The Big Drop
The Children’s University aims to inspire a passion for lifelong learning, and provide encouragement and improved access to higher education for students with diverse backgrounds. During the 2022 winter school holidays, students aged between 7 - 14 and their parents were invited to attend an action-packed holiday program at the University of Western Australia’s Crawley Campus.
Students met passionate UWA researchers and students, and participated in a range of fun, hands-on learning activities, including:
Trick Your Brain - School of Psychological Sciences
Scavenger Hunt - Clarke Earth Science Museum UWA
Build A Prosthetic Leg - Engineers Without Borders UWA
How Your Body Works - School of Human Sciences
The Big Drop - School of Engineering
‘The Big Drop’ was lead by Dr Wesley Moss (research fellow at CEI:AgER). The hands-on session focused on the engineering design process, and was designed to teach students about engineering, and get students excited about STEM. During this activity, students were tasked with building a device to protect an egg from a two story drop.
The images below show some of the participants and their designs, ready for the big drop.
Children show off their egg-drop designs and prepare to drop their their eggs from the second floor.
The students thoroughly enjoyed the activity and got a hands-on demonstration of physics and engineering design. Through lots of problem solving, laughs and the occasional broken egg, the students had a great time being engineers.
The egg-drop challenge was a favourite activity among the children, achieving a rating of 4.9/5. Below are some quotes from some of the students who completed the egg-drop challenge.
To see more pictures from the program, visit: https://www.facebook.com/ChildrensUniversityWAPartnership/posts/pfbid037vDgCP2WMLG9E7mfTyc4PCyAcTtPL7EU3XfEMr7crAbcnASe4PLWdjcBjuaFreugl
For more information about UWA’s involvement with the Children’s University, please visit:
https://www.uwa.edu.au/study/how-to-apply/admission-entry-pathways/student-equity/childrens-university