North Shore pupils take learning leap at Massey

Starting a business, harnessing the chemistry of food flavours, and the history of the book were among fascinating topics covered at Massey University’s Albany campus to keep Year 10 pupils focused on learning – yearning though they may be for summer holidays to begin.

While attention spans may be wandering with just over two weeks of school to go, more than 350 North Shore pupils took the chance to hear some of the University’s top academics as well as to carry out experiments in food chemistry, work on robots and hear about entrepreneurship.

Pupils from Long Bay College, Rosmini College, Westlake Girls’ High School, Glenfield College, Pinehurst School, Carmel College, Whangaparaoa College, Mahurangi College and Orewa College attended the Tertiary Taster Day, where they could choose lectures and workshops on psychology, nursing, finance, information sciences, natural sciences, media and marketing, engineering and robotics, history and English literature.

It is the second consecutive year the campus has held the Tertiary Taster Day, which aims to give younger teenagers an experience of university because many are making decisions at the end of Year 10 about which subjects to take for NCEA levels one to three in the following years, says Massey Albany student liaison coordinator Deb Buchanan.

“If they make poor choices they can close doors on future opportunities in tertiary study,” says Ms Buchanan. “The Tertiary Taster day gives students a chance to see inside a university, an experience that can open up a world of possibilities and illustrate where their choices might lead.”

For many, it is the first time they have entered a university. “We hope to demystify our environment and show them the huge range of courses to choose from,” she says.