The enhancement group is a chance for
for the students to lead exactly what
they want to find out about and to
demonstrate that they are able to do
that to to a very high level which they
are, it's working really well.
The next steps with that is to expand that so it's a more hub based programme,
but the students are still able to lead
that. What we did at the start was to get
the students to really think about
things they were interested in, things
they were passionate about, skills that
they have and then we looked at how they
could turn one or more of those elements
into an area of investigation.
So I'm looking into the marine biology
side of like coral reefs and the marine
life and stuff like that and I'm also
incorporating marine photography because
I like standing behind a camera,
but I kind of want to involve my passion
for marine biology too. So outside of the
classroom we are encouraging them to
seek external sources of information so
for example yesterday we went to the
museum and had a look at some ancient
artifacts for the students who are
looking at Greek mythology and they also
interviewed the head of classics at the
university, and our other student who's
doing the marine biology is doing a
dive course, and she's doing
experiments at home looking at how coral
is damaged by carbon emissions. Well
I think this enhancement programme, it
helps because it's a chance that I can
work on something I'm passionate about
so I can dig deeper. Last Friday I went
to the pool to work on my photography
skills and then I'm going in November, 
I'm doing a dive course. I've contacted the
marine Study Center down in Otago which I'm hoping to go and
visit so I can talk to maybe one of their
marine biologists.
We have another student who is looking at
genetic modification so we're
encouraging him to go out and talk to
people in industry and also go to the
university and get some contacts there. So
they are doing a lot of things in the
classroom but we're encouraging them as
well to go out and it makes it a bit
more authentic because it's linked more
to real life rather than just sitting in
a room and looking at things on the
Internet and coming up with information
that way. Along the way we want to start
to get involved with industry more and
more and we're just looking for those
opportunities to make those links. Places
they can go to and people they can talk
to in the community, and go into local
industries and things like that.
I think the project-based learning has a
really positive impact on their
well-being because they feel in control,
so for them to be able to go out and
design their project and come up with
their own plan I think makes them feel
in charge, it makes them feel like
they've, you know challenging themselves.
We've spent a long time sort of being
in control of that learning process
and what we're trying to do is slowly
put it back to the students because one
thing we've learned in the last couple
of terms is students can do it if
they're given the chance
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