Royal Society Grant for Young Researchers Project
Published: 11 July 2018
Professor Niamh Stack and Dr Heather Cleland Woods have received a Royal Society Partnership Grant to continue their collaboration with young researchers from a local primary school over the next academic year.
Professor Niamh Stack and Dr Heather Cleland Woods have received a Royal Society Partnership Grant to continue their collaboration with young researchers from a local primary school over the next academic year.
The collaboration between the University of Glasgow and Kelvinside Academy aims to teach pupils the analytical and investigative skills necessary for independent research.
At the beginning of the project, pupils are taught about the nature of research, including issues such as ethics and how to frame a research question.
They are then challenged to design their own projects by creating their own research questions, collecting their own data and conducting independent analysis.
The pupils are then asked to strip out any bias from their research, analyse their results and communicate their findings in an engaging way at poster presentation sessions.
The study aims to develop creativity, critical thinking and communication skills, and has inspired some fantastic work over the past couple of years, with topics including social media, sleep, exercise and healthy eating.
So far the collaboration has proved just as popular with the Psychology staff as it has with the pupils and teachers from Kelvinside Academy.
Following the most recent visit, Prof Niamh Stack tweeted: “Fantastic poster presentations from our @KA_JuniorSch researchers this afternoon - so impressed with all your hard work!”
Kelvinside Juniors tweeted: “#KAJ6 visited @UofGPsychology this afternoon to present their #childrenasresearchers projects to staff and students. What an amazing opportunity and experience. Many thanks to @Eavanmac [Prof Niamh Stack] and to everyone who came along today.”
First published: 11 July 2018