Sowing the seeds of a brighter future

Young boys huddle around tables and in groups on the floor of UTS’s new faculty of engineering and IT building. Robots are the focus of all their attention and excited chatter.

Part of a UTS school holiday program to stimulate the curiosity of young intellects, their visit this week was a first glimpse of university life for many of the participants.

According to childhood education expert Professor Rosemary Johnston research shows if we ignite children’s curiosity and find fascinating ways to engage that curiosity, it leads to greater learning.

Professor Johnston who heads UTS’s International Research Centre for Youth Futures said the project had evolved from a need for holiday programs that foster a high quality and genuine learning environment. 

From there the “Bright Futures” learning enhancement program for primary school children in years 3-4 was born.

“At UTS we want to enhance futures, encourage kids into university and see excitement in their faces, generated from a genuine desire to learn and do,” Professor Johnston said.

“Working in collaboration with young academics from the UTS Faculty of Engineering and IT we chose robot making as an activity in which so much could be done - making, programming - that would attract and grow bright minds.

“We have included a children’s drama and technology program this week also, run in conjunction with the Stalker Theatre Company and associate professor Andrew Johnston from FEIT.”

Engineering graduate and project mentor Tuan Nguyen said seeing the boys’ excitement and curiosity was brilliant, revealing how children are fascinated by new and complex things.

“The robots were a perfect ice-breaker to connect the boys from various schools and have them working in teams,” Tuan said.

“These are exactly the collaborative skills they’ll need in the future when they come to work on major projects, maybe in engineering.”

IRCYF are planning more learning enhancement projects in September in maths, science and creative writing.  The Centre is also working on attracting more girls to its engineering workshops.

One eager participant in the robotics activity, Dominic Wood said, “we built robots and then learnt how to program them using binary code.”  “It taught me impossible things are always possible when you have technology.”