STEM & Health Experience Day 2024 a huge success!

STEM & Health Experience Day 2024, on 6 June, was an exciting day for 150 secondary school students, filled with interactive workshops, tours, and presentations showcasing Massey's STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and health offerings. This is one of the largest on-campus recruitment events of the year.

The aim of the day was to inspire students to consider careers in health and STEM subjects at tertiary level, to get them to help solve future problems for Aotearoa New Zealand and the world. The answers to future problems come from exploring topics such as climate change, food technology, plant science and horticulture, caring for our planet and its animals, coding for data management, the application of psychology, as well as many more exciting subjects. Massey’s science degrees provide the flexibility to study different aspects of science. The interactive workshops showed future students that they will be hands-on from day one, to learn the crucial skills necessary to excel in their future careers.

The year 11, 12 and 13 students came from a range of 17 schools through Manawatū, Hawkes Bay and Wellington, as well as others from across the lower North Island. The workshops included Chemistry, Animal Science, Agriculture with a tour of the Massey farms, Horticulture and Plant Science, Food Technology, Nursing, Biology, Maths, Psychology, Earth and Environment Science, Zoology and Ecology, Sport and Exercise, and Computer Science.

After being formally welcomed onto the campus, the students got to attend three interactive workshops in the subjects of their choosing during the programme. Many students said it had been hard to select programmes to attend, as there were so many interesting options available.

The students attending the biology and chemistry workshops donned lab coats and gloves as they stepped into the lab to create a handheld spectrophotometer with their phone or dissecting a fruit fly brain whilst drawing with micropipettes. For Animal Science and Zoology and Ecology, students got the chance explore the animal kingdom, including our native kiwi as well as sheep and chickens.

Feedback from the students and teachers was overwhelmingly positive and included statements such as the day was ‘interesting and engaging’, ‘it exceeded my expectations. I loved the labs and classrooms, educators were knowledgeable and kind’ and ‘it made me knowledgeable of the key aspects of Massey and what it has to offer’. One student claimed ‘the day was fun and entertaining’ and there were ‘more options to study than I thought’. And a future animal scientist claimed ‘it was cool to see inside of a chicken!'

Professor Mark Waterland, Academic Lead for the School of Food Technology and Natural Sciences says it was great to see so many students enthusiastic about being on campus and enjoying the practical activities.

The STEM & Heath Experience Day was organised and run by Stacey Lane from the Future Students Team, alongside other Future Student Team members who were on board to answer any questions for those considering future study with Massey. All workshops were run by academics in the individual science and health areas.