Young minds challenged at USQ Day of Excellence

It looked like a scene from a Harry Potter movie - a group of 12-year-olds mixing up purple potion in chemistry beakers which bubbled out white clouds.

USQ Fraser Coast Sciences lecturer Dr Jamie Shield taught Pialba State School students, Shetaya Davis and Kaci Roser, how to make a lie detector.

The children were part of the first USQ Day of Excellence held in Hervey Bay recently.

More than 60 top-achieving grade 7 students from primary schools in Hervey Bay and Bundaberg took part in the day.

It was jointly organised by the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) Fraser Coast and the Fraser Coast Anglican College (FCAC) as a means of giving the children university-style classes aimed at challenging the mind.

The students were able to choose from classes in maths, forensic science, chemistry, creative thinking and information and communication technology (ICT).

But it wasn’t all theory. The students in the forensic science class, led by USQ Professor Grant Daggard, extracted DNA from a ‘crime scene’ to identify a murder weapon.

The chemistry students worked with Roz Nicholls, from FCAC, to extract pigment from red cabbage.

USQ lecturer Dr Jamie Shield taught the students to build a lie detector.

Meanwhile, the mathematical principles of ‘house of cards’ building were taught by USQ Fraser Coast education faculty lecturer Trevor Black. The students were able to practise their skills, with some students managing five-storey-high towers.

USQ Fraser Coast campus Provost Professor Ken Stott said the students were curious and deeply engaged by the classes.
He said the classes had taken them to a new intellectual level.

Contact Details:
Katrina Corcoran, USQ Media, +61 7 4194 3167