Strengthening and enriching education
Utrecht University, HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht and almost 50 secondary schools in the region work together to strengthen and enrich education. At U-Talent we organise activities for secondary school students and their teachers and we have a network function for our partner schools.
Goals
We aim to achieve:
- A better transition from secondary education to higher education.
- Strengthened education in local secondary schools and higher education institutions.
- Valorisation of scientific knowledge.
Student activities
We organise activities for different ages and levels in secondary school. Almost all activities are for students who are motivated, but who do not necessarily perform outstandingly. They are aimed at students who would like to try something extra next to their regular classes.
For the younger students we organise days at our university campus, which for most students is their first encounter with scientific research and education. We offer several interdisciplinary activities around topics such as plastic soup, saving the rainforest and music.
UU-scientist: “I think it’s important as well as fun that secondary school students are offered the opportunity to see what doing scientific research is like.”
For older students we organise, among other events, masterclasses, which are 1- or 2-day activities consisting of lectures, seminars, lab work, field work and/or tours. There are various topics: from maths to language and from culture to pharmacy. Talented students can apply for our campus programma: the U-Talent Academy of U-Talent College.
U-Talent student: “It was very interesting to perform lab work at the university.”
Teacher training
We organise activities for (science) teachers, technical teaching assistants and school leaders. These offer a wide range of tools and skills to design appealing and challenging (science) education. Our teacher programme consists of teacher communities, didactical as well as subject related workshops, an annual conference and a diverse offer of incompany trainings.
Teacher: “I received a lot of suggestions and exercises that I could immediately implement in my daily teaching practice.”
Further reading
Contact
Would you like to know more about U-Talent, are you a scientist who would like to contribute to our activities, or would you like to work together with us? Please contact us through u-talent@uu.nl
