Hands On - Otago
During the summer holidays Anna Quigley, Emma Bungard and Pinky Ancheta all Year 13 Students, were selected to go to Hands-On at Otago.
This was an amazing opportunity where we got to experience a week of Otago student life. We each were selected for different projects. Each morning we spent time in a university department working on these projects. There was a balance of learning and social events, including a big night out at the end of the week. During this time, we got to stay on campus in the newest residential hall, Te Rangihiroa. We got to learn from world-class academic staff, and met with students with similar interests from across the country.
Physiology - Pinky:
During this week I was lucky to be a part of the physiology program. Physiology is the science about understanding how your body works at the molecular, cellular and organ system levels.
Day 1- our topic was Senses and Sensation where my eyesight was put to the test. The experiment was reading off a snellen chart with the lights on and off to see if we have 20/20 vision. 20/20 vision means you can see at 20 feet what an average person can see at 20 feet… I do not have 20/20 vision.
Day 2- our focus was nerves and muscles, one experiment I did was stimulating an ulnar nerve where a little metal fork that had 40 volts was placed on my arm. This made my arm start to twitch, this was activating motor neurons
Day 3- Heart and Lungs
Where I measured my blood pressure and examined how my heart copes with exercise.
Day 4-
And day 4 was taste, smell and hearing. This day an experiment I did was exploring my perception of flavour and why you block your nose to eat something you don’t like.
Sports science - Emma:
In the sport and exercise project we took a hands-on approach to understanding performance, movement, and injury. We had the opportunity to get outside of the classroom and take part in once-in-a-lifetime experiences while using advanced, high tech equipment.
On Day 1, we learned about energy expenditure and oxygen consumption by running on a treadmill, and our physiological data was measured.
On Day 2, we went outside to play a game of touch. We wore GPS trackers and heart rate monitors, the same ones used by the highlanders for their athlete tracking and performance analysis. We changed the rules of the game in the second half to see how different conditions affected our performance.
On Day 3, we had the opportunity to swim in a flume, which is a treadmill for swimming. This flume is the only one in the Southern Hemisphere, and it's worth over $10 million, and it's even been used by Michael Phelps! During this session, we measured drag force and looked at fluid dynamics, by analysing resistance in different body positions. On this day we also went into an environmental chamber that was 40 degrees celcius with 80% humidity, where we monitored our heart rates to see our physiological response to heat stress.
Lastly, on Day 4 we investigated postural control. We looked at how good our balance on our less dominant foot is under normal conditions, then we strapped our ankle to see the effect that had, and lastly we had to send a text and see how that compared to the previous data. This meant we could see how distractions affected our stability.
Education - Anna:
In the education program I got to explore New Zealand's early childhood, primary and secondary education curriculum. We went through topics in the educational field such as; as the role of design process, child psychology and different forms of teaching.
On Day 1- We studied the Importance of sport and PE in education from a child psychology point of view. We got to play a range of outdoor games suitable for different ages. Then on the second half of the day we discussed what we think "a good teacher is?" than explored and brainstormed different forms of teaching and both the positives and negatives of each of them.
On Day 2- We learn about how the process of creativity and design fits into primary education. We got to make and design our own chocolate molds, and then in the second half of the day we got to use our molds to make chocolate and go to experiment with different forms of fillings and flavours.
On Day 3- we went through science in primary and secondary education, exploring the main topic of our planet which comes up mainly in primary education. We had group discussions on what we think the flaws are in the overall science as a topic is taught in school, and suggested solutions to help the education guidelines. Then after this we conducted different lab experiments in different topics, and taught in different teaching styles to see which experiments we found most successful.
On Day 4- We experiments with different forms of creative art and textures in primary and early childhood education. We went through making art with different forms of textures and styles like puffy paint,fingerpainting,slime, paper mache and then for highschool art we made our own interpretation of Banksy's street art.
Tasters - Emma:
During our time at Hands-On we also got the opportunity to do tasters which gave us the chance to experience a variety of different projects. Some of the tasters we did included: physiotherapy, physiology, physics, psychology, the otago museum and I also got the highlanders, where I got to see where they train.
Hands-On at Otago was the most amazing, eye-opening experience. We encourage year 11s and 12s to put their names down, and make the most of this amazing opportunity, you won't regret it! If you have any questions or want more information, feel free to come and talk to us! Thank you!