LENScience programme enables student’s high achievement

St Cuthbert’s College student Hannah Ng was presented with New Zealand’s most prestigious school science award, the Prime Minister’s Future Scientist Prize at a ceremony in Wellington this morning.

The Prize recognises a secondary school student for their achievements in carrying out a practical and innovative research or technology project.

Hannah’s project “The locus of the focus” was conceived and conducted within the framework of the LENScience Students as Researchers Programme at the Liggins Institute. The programme supports students with an interest and talent in science to develop to a level beyond what can normally be achieved in a school setting.

The programme is a partnership between LENScience, the school and the contributing science organisation, which in Hannah’s case was The University of Auckland’s Department of Optometry and Vision Science. Hannah has been participating in the programme since 2009, in which time she has completed two projects in the field of optometry which have resulted in a number of awards and scientific publications.

LENScience Director Jacquie Bay says the Students as Researchers Programme offers scaffolded teaching and mentoring within the University environment to enable gifted and talented students to develop scientific research skills and engage with the University.

“80% of students selected for the programme come from low decile schools while 20% (including Hannah) come, via a competitive entry process, from schools that participate in the NIWA Auckland Science and Technology Fair,” she said.

“The programme offers a series of workshops to develop research skills and links students with mentors, for both science education and science specific to their projects, and provides access to resources not available in a school setting. Hannah’s mentors Dr Simon Backhouse and Dr John Phillips from the University of Auckland Department of Optometry and Vision Science have provided on-going mentoring and access to resources since she joined us in 2009.

“Her LENScience education supervisor Helen Mora, our Teaching and Learning Programme Manager, has done an outstanding job in helping Hannah to make the most of these opportunities.”

Recognising the effectiveness of the team approach, Liggins Institute Director Professor Wayne Cutfield, said, “This prestigious award reflects on Hannah Ng a very bright and capable student, her enthusiastic mentor Dr John Phillips in Optometry and Vision Science and importantly the LENScience Programme which continues to deliver high calibre teaching and research experience in applied biomedical science for enormous numbers of school students across Auckland, particularly those from lower decile schools.”

Hannah’s project investigated the relative importance of the peripheral and central retina on the development of myopia (short sightedness). Contrary to previous findings, the results demonstrated that the central retina had the more important role in myopia development when compared to the peripheral retina.

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Further information:
Jacquie Bay, Director LENScience: j.bay@auckland.ac.nz, phone (09) 923 4282