On Thursday 23 October, Year 9 students Seb Ong, Susan Ma, and Trang Ngo stepped up to present in front of Brimbank City Council members (including the Deputy Mayor), teachers, and students from other schools. What were they presenting? The culmination of 7 months of hard work in the Brimbank Young Researchers program.
The Brimbank Young Researchers Program is run by Brimbank Youth Services and aims to grow the capacity of young people to develop strong research skills, such as creating suitable research questions, carrying out data collection, and communicating findings effectively. Our students took part in 3 workshops (one each in Terms 1, 2 and 3) where they worked with lecturers and tutors from Swinburne University of Technology to building their understanding and use of these skills.
Seb, Susan, and Trang decided to investigate the impact of technology on SASC students, producing their presentation titled: ‘Trends of Social Media: Impacting Young People’s Mental Health’. In their presentation, they examined how long SASC students spend on devices, and unpacked student feedback about the impact of device use on their health, relationships, and overall wellbeing. They then provided their recommendations to the City Council on actions that can be taken in homes, schools, and the local community to support reduced time on devices and thus improve the wellbeing of young people in Brimbank.
Seb, Susan and Trang did an incredible job and are a credit to the College community!
Acknowledgements: Thank you to every student who responded to their survey – they could not have done this work with your willingness to share. Thank you also to Ms Avril Good and Ms Katie O’Connell, who each supervised students at one of the sessions.
Ms Amy Lee – Humanities | Learning Specialist Student Agency | High Ability Program Leader