Young people have to negotiate many challenges in today's digital world, and a UC project ‘Living and learning in a digital society: Youth voices’ will help them to think more critically about the issues.
In a ‘post-truth’ world of social media and ‘fake news’, young people need to think more critically and be more informed and responsible than ever.
A University of Canterbury (UC) project that aims to support young people to engage in debates about science and technology issues has received $29,872 in funding from the 2020 Unlocking Curious Minds funding round.
The ‘Living and learning in a digital society: Youth voices’ project will run participatory workshops with secondary school students in Christchurch to explore digital technology issues that face young people now and in the future, such as AI, (in)equality, digital identity, digital behaviour, global connectedness, screen time, social media, hate speech online and fake news.
Unlocking Curious Minds recently announced $2 million in funding to 31 projects aimed at engaging more New Zealanders in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
Four UC projects received Unlocking Curious Minds funding:
- Living and learning in a digital society: Youth voices Canterbury $29,872
- Partnership to encourage Māori and Pasifika communities into Engineering $30,000 11 months: This project will engage Māori and Pasifika children through challenging and innovative activities in areas such as robotics, renewable energy, rocketry, electronics and programming. The programme engages whānau and combines talent from community groups, public libraries and educational organisations.
- Quake Kit Earthquake Monitoring Programme for Alpine Fault Schools (Tasman, West Coast, Otago, Southland) $29,329
- Maths Craft in a Box $30,000 (Find out more about Maths Craft here: UC mathematicians get crafty around New Zealand)
Read more about Unlocking Curious Minds here