Kids Conference 

– Galileo Presentation 

On the 14th of November 2022, three year 9 students, Jiayu Kok, Douglas Liu and Ian Park attended and presented at the Kids Conference 2022 at the University of Melbourne. The students presented their Galileo Future Solutions presentation, which was about supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goal of Clean Water and Sanitation. Students from various schools in Melbourne (and South Africa via Zoom) attended and presented their work to share their ideas and research. 

The day started with some nerves and excitement from the students with Douglas dressed for the occasion in his dapper suit jacket. We walked on over to the beautiful Arts West building and the students were greeted and treated like the young professionals they are. We were all given name tags and guided towards our lecture theatre for the day. 

We watched an array of different presentations throughout the day, ranging from work on supporting student mental health to historical board games to improvisational jazz music. 

Then, the second last presentation of the day was our wonderful year 9 Galileo students who spoke confidently, fluently, and clearly about their innovation to support clean water and sanitation. Their innovation, Filterix, is a water bottle that filters out bacteria and other harmful contaminants that can be found in water – it was designed to support people who consume contaminated water within the Ganges River, India. Douglas opened the presentation loudly and decisively and immediately created rapport with the audience. Ian gestured to the groups data and transitioned between slides smoothly. And finally, Jiayu led the group and responded to questions from the audience with comfort. It was a fantastic group effort and demonstrated the diverse strengths of the University High School students. The presentation concluded with questions and comments from the audience, with the Kids Conference organisers imploring the group to create a prototype of their water bottle and to present their ideas to organisations, such as the World Health Organisation (WHO). The day was a huge success and a fabulous display of creativity, expression and intellect from young minds.

Jamie Thorley - Galileo Teacher