Over 80 students from 8 local secondary schools attended this year’s Inside Sport Science Presentation evening. The evening was a formal display of the participating students research, which they had been conducting at the University of Kent laboratories over the past months.
The purpose of Inside Sports Science is to expose secondary school students to key scientific and technological developments in sports and exercise science in a hands-on and accessible manner. The students participated in a range of sport science workshops run by the schools PhD students in which they were introduced to a range of sport science concepts. They were then challenged to develop their own research projects and with the help of the PhD students they collect their data and analysed the results. All the schools then created a poster to display their finding at the Presentation evening.
The secondary students excelled at explaining the concepts behind their study design, the limitations and conclusions of their work to the judging panel. All schools showed great depth of understanding of research methodology and passion for their chosen project. A special congratulations goes to Chatham Grammar School for Girls who took away the top prize for their research investigating the effect of cold climate on muscular strength.
The presentation evening was topped off by an inspiring talk given by Gold Medallist and University of Kent Alumni Charlotte Evans MBE. Former Sports Therapy Student Charlotte Evans spoke about her journey to the 2014 Winter Paralympic Games where, as guide for visually impaired skier Kelly Gallagher, she won gold in the women’s Super-G. Charlotte commented ‘‘Well done for another great evening, I think it is great opportunity for the students involved and the ones I spoke to were really passionate about it.”
Congratulations again to all those students who took part and made this year project another great success. The School of Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Kent looks forward to welcoming more schools and more students into the Inside Sport Science programme again next year.