BME Outreach Workshop hosted 130 Highschool Learners from SDU's Siyazakha Project
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The Division of Biomedical Engineering in the Department of Human Biology hosted 130 Grade-9 high school learners for an outreach workshop on 26 June 2018. This event was organised in collaboration with UCT’s School Development Unit (SDU) and formed part of SDU’s Siyazakha Project.
The Biomedical Engineering workshop demonstrated the diverse applications of Mathematics, and Physical and Natural Sciences in medicine and healthcare. Throughout the day, the learners toured eight stations with the following themes:
- Health Innovation
- Medical Devices
- Orthopaedic Biomechanics
- Digital Health
- Clinical Engineering
- Virtual & Augmented Reality in Healthcare
- Mechanobiology
- Outreach Movies, created by the division's first-year Master’s students on different aspect of biomedical engineering and health innovation, and their motivation to select these fields of study
For the closing session we had invited Ms Thoko Miya to speak to the learners. Thoko Miya is the Global Partnerships Manager of GirlHype (www.girlhype.co.za), a non-profit company with the mission to empower, connect, and support the next generation of South African women leaders in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
The Siyazakha Project, led by the SDU’s Ms Gillian Kay, is a five-year project funded by the Zenex Foundation aimed at increasing the uptake of Mathematics and Physicals Sciences and at improving learner performance in Mathematics and Physical Sciences in ten high schools across Khayelitsha, Mfuleni, Ravensmead and Joe Slovo Park. The SDU supports the principals and senior management teams, offers teacher professional development for English, Mathematics and Physical / Natural Sciences teachers and runs a learner programme for selected learners. The Grade-9 learner programme aims mainly at stimulating an interest in Mathematics and Science and developing critical thinking skills.