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Teenagers learn about the power of informatics at the #datasaveslives schools workshop

Posted on November 30, 2015

HeRC members with the winning team of the 'design an app' workshop activity

HeRC with the winning team of the 'Design an app' activity

Over 40 school pupils experienced life as a health data scientist when they took part in an interactive workshop delivered by colleagues from the Health eResearch Centre (HeRC) and the Farr Institute for Health Informatics.

Designed to provide an overview of how data can be used to understand and enhance public health students from Altrincham Grammar School for Girls worked together in teams to link and make sense of data before creating public health ‘apps’.

Throughout the session, the GCSE Computer Science students were guided through the activities by researchers working at HeRC. This enabled pupils to discuss informally not only the tasks at hand but also encouraged them to ask questions about careers in research and in particular careers in health data science.

“Thank you to you and your team for an excellent event. The students were really involved and interested and it has really opened their eyes to possible careers using the skills gained in school.”

Dr Jason Welch, Head of Computing

One group of pupils design a mobile health app to target tooth decay

 

After a brief introduction about careers across the health data science sector and the ways in which health data can be used in research, students set about critiquing data. Expanding on this students worked in teams to design a mobile health app. The aim of the app was to help members of the public understand and visualise the amount of sugar in food, and to generate valuable data. Teams worked in competition and presented their ideas in a Dragons Den style ‘pitch’. The winning team designed an innovative social media style app and were awarded Amazon gift vouchers.

The session was brought to a close with a Q&A in which the pupils were invited to ask the researchers anything related to their careers.

The session was brought to close with a Q&A in which the pupils were invited to ask the researchers anything related to their careers. The pupils were then asked to rate the session; 100% of the event participants rated the session as between Good and Excellent and described it overall as “informative”, “interesting” and “engaging”. In addition, 53% of the pupils indicated that yes, they would now consider a career in health research.

“It was plain to see that the pupils thoroughly enjoyed the session and took a lot from it. This was a lively and engaging workshop which really encouraged the pupils to explore the importance and impact that health data has on all of our lives.   The mobile phone apps the pupils developed were both educational and entertaining and illustrated perfectly the very real application of this subject in the world of work.” – Hilary Langmead-Jones, SCITT Manager

Read and download the in-depth case study here

View photos from the day