Last Friday, 79 students from Year 8 spent a day gaining a taste of what it might be like to be a university student.
After arriving on the main Teesside University campus, the Teesdale students went off in small groups with students from the university to complete their first activity, which involved visiting key areas of the site, including the library, faculty buildings, student union, accommodation areas and sports facilities. The student ambassadors talked to the Teesdale students about their journeys from school to university, the courses they were studying and general experiences of student life.
In the afternoon, Teesdale students selected a discovery session to attend. These included an introduction to forensic science, where the students visited a crime scene and had to look for clues, and made key fobs from their fingerprints. Katie Jones commented: “It actually felt like I was investigating a real crime scene”.
Students taking the chemistry option completed chromatography experiments, whilst those doing engineering made radio controlled cars and planes from Lego.
Another group of students completed a star lab activity where they identified constellations. The final group, after undertaking market research by tasting chocolates, created and presented their marketing strategy for a new brand of chocolates as part of the choc box challenge.
Mr Trevett, who organised the event with staff from Teesside University commented: “The students seemed to really enjoy the day, and I hope that the objectives of raising student awareness of, and aspirations to one day go to university, were achieved”.