Curtin University has launched a series of workshops, seminars and summer camps for high achieving secondary school students, designed to develop strengths in innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship.
The Curtin Achievement Centred Engagement for Students (ACES) program has been trialled throughout 2016 with students from Curtin’s Innovative Schools Consortium (ISC) – an initiative building innovation within diverse Western Australian schools.
To become involved, schools enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Curtin and then nominate students to participate in the ACES program.
Associate Professor David Gibson, Curtin’s Director of Learning Futures, said digital technologies had an enormous impact on both society and learning.
“Future business, science and political leaders will need more than academic attributes alone to succeed,” Associate Professor Gibson said.
“We need a workforce highly skilled in creative, collaborative, innovative problem solving. These programs will help us identify promising students, who have the skills and attributes to perform well if their potential is harnessed and developed in the right environment.
“The ACES pilot began in semester one 2016 with a small group of year 11 students with strengths in a variety of disciplines such as science, maths, humanities and art.”
As part of the ACES pilot, the year 11 students took part in a three-week program through the CISCO Networking Academy on Curtin’s Bentley campus. Students were paired with a Curtin undergraduate and a PhD student to form a team to solve data strategy problems, which were then judged by a panel of experts from Cisco.
The MOU and participation in ACES programs can be tailored to the needs of all schools, including those in remote and regional communities.
To find out more and to get involved, contact Dr Melissa Langdon, Manager of Partnerships and Pathways via entry_pathways@curtin.edu.au.
