Gifted and Talented students invited to Plymouth University

The Year 11 students were invited to participate in an exciting project devised by Callington's Gifted & Talented coordinator Jamie Coates in collaboration with Plymouth University.

As part of the development of Gifted and Talented provision in East Cornwall, students from Looe, Liskeard, Saltash.net, Torpoint, Callington and Saltash College were invited to participate in an exciting project. They worked alongside Plymouth University students and lecturers to design a new town for East Cornwall.

The day started with a lecture from keynote speaker Alan Dyer, Director of the Centre for Sustainable Futures followed by specialist input from University lecturers in Maths, ICT and Media, Science and Humanities.

The day allowed the students to experience a taste of university life by attending specialist lectures culminating in working in teams to develop their town of the future. They completed a final presentation in groups to the rest of the students in a university lecture theatre.

The following report is by Corrina Taylor - Year 11 at Callington Community College

As part of the gifted and talented program we went to Plymouth University for a day. We attended lectures on climate change and how it will affect our way of living in 20 years time. The lectures where taken by Maths, Science, Humanities and ICT university teachers and each of them added another perspective to what a completely eco friendly town would be like and how we could make it work.

At the end of the day we split up into smaller groups and were able to design our own eco friendly town with details of how to get rid of waste, trade fairly and use alternative, sustainable power. We presented our plans to the other students and teachers at the end of the day and received feedback on how effective and workable it would be.

It was a really productive day with a very tasty lunch and was an eye opener to how much our lives will change if we want to fight global warming and its effects.