FOR more than 1,200 high school students, drawn from high schools across the span of the island, their test pressures this May and June will be alleviated with expert insights from university lecturers.

Through a partnership between the JPS Foundation and The University of West Indies (UWI) science and technology department, the teenagers benefited from a week-long series of workshops focused on their science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subject areas.

“We are doing Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Exam (CAPE) subjects across the gamut of what the university offers in the science faculty,” said Dr Andre Coy, associate dean for external engagement at The UWI, of the series of workshops that kicked off on January 12 at the tertiary school’s Mona campus .

“They [the students] are doing geography and geology, computing, biology, chemistry, and physics for the week. We are going through topics in unit 1 and unit 2 for all of those subjects.”

He said the idea is to help them prepare for the theory-based sections of the exams as well as the labs.

“They are able to do their internal assessments by taking part in the labs and preparing for submissions to the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC),” he added.

The memorandum of understanding between The UWI and the JPS Foundation, signed in 2023, totals $16 million over a five-year period. It facilitates a reduction in the workshop price to students, from potentially $5,000 to $1,500. The price is held at $1,500 for five years.

Now in its third year, the CAPE/STEM workshops are intensive deep dives into areas of study for the secondary school students.

“What they do throughout the workshop is look at specific parts of the curriculum that CXC has identified issues with,” the associate dean explained. “For instance, in physics, they are looking at simple harmonic motion and operational amplifiers unit 1 and unit 2, respectively. We have identified that students are having challenges in those areas and so we use the expertise from the university to help them to understand the topic and to be able to engage with it.”

Another problem area tackled in the workshop is chromatography in chemistry.

“A lot of the issues stem from the fact that students don’t have the equipment or the consumable chemicals that they need in their high schools to explore this chemistry topic in its entirety. So when they come here, they get not just access to the technology and the chemicals, they get access to the expertise of the people, who are actually doing novel research in chromatography, so it’s a holistic experience. Not only are they doing the subject material, but they are getting to interact with people who are doing research and get an understanding of what the campus feels like and how it is run,” Dr Coy continued.

For Safreen Blake, an upper sixth form student at Wolmer’s Girls’, being a participant in the CAPE/STEM workshop is of immediate benefit, given her present pursuit of science subjects.

“I would love to become a veterinarian or an environmentalist,” the 18-year-old said, after she won a $5,000 gift certificate from Fontana Pharmacy as a spot prize for a challenge thrown out to the gathering.

Blake was first to raise her hand with a climate-resilient pitch among her high school peers gathered in The UWI science and technology lecture hall for the workshop’s opening session. Other students on day one were from Wolmer’s Boys’, St George’s College, York Castle, Jose Marti Technical High, Manchester High, Merl Grove, Camperdown, and St Hilda’s.

“We know that pollution is a big problem in Jamaica and I see that not many people are doing something about it,” pointed out the teen now deep in the books studying biology, chemistry, and computer science. “I thought of the idea that we could compose a substance to put in bodies of water that are polluted areas to bring the pollution to the top of the water level. I feel there is something in the long-term future that we could develop to soften chemicals in the polluted areas and separate it,” she explained.

JPS Foundation head Sophia Lewis was impressed with Blake’s innovative pitch, and pleased with the ongoing success of the CAPE/STEM workshop partnership programme.

“This is possibly one of our most impactful initiatives and we look forward to doing this at the start of the year because it is a very strong start to our activities,” she said. “We have over 1,000 students that come out and are engaged in STEM activities. They are eager and excited to learn and as a foundation, we are the bridge between the students and JPS.”

She said the five-day workshop enlightened the participants of what happens behind the scenes and possible careers to consider.

“They are able to understand the role of JPS and how energy management works. They are also able to dream big to know that although they are students, they can be part of something bigger when it comes to innovation and when it comes to energy management of our nation,” Lewis elaborated.