On Saturday, 27 April 2013, ALA hosted the 4th Annual Scientific Research Symposium at our Academy in Johannesburg.
The Scientific Research Symposium is an annual showcase for presenting the final research projects of all students who have taken the ALA Scientific Research course.
Our Scientific Research course is an elective offered to ALA students who have excelled in the sciences and who wish to extend themselves by conducting independent research on a topic in the Sciences. This research course is a uniquely student-driven course that is designed to expose students to current research in the various fields of science, to teach them to fully analyze and interpret journal-level science writing, and to allow them to become experts in a particular area on the frontiers of scientific knowledge.
As part of the preparation for their research and the Symposium, our students got the opportunity to meet with researchers at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa, which is one of the leading scientific and technology research, development and implementation organizations in Africa.
This year, twenty-four of our students chose to engage, research and tackle an array of scientific topics ranging from HIV/AIDs, to Quantum computing, robotics, neuroscience, physics, religion, immunology, mental illness, and much more.
During the Symposium, all twenty-four students in the Scientific Research course gave poster presentations to teach and share with guests and visitors about their research topics. After the poster presentations, six of the twenty-four students gave a more extensive presentation and keynote speeches on their research and findings in front of all our guests in our Auditorium.
The goal of our Scientific Research course and Symposium was to give our students practical and great exposure to high-level scientific research.
After this experience, many of the students who participated in the Scientific Research Symposium said that they plan to continue pursuing their research even after they graduate from ALA and go on to University.
ALA also publishes an annual Journal of Scientific Research. Many of the students’ research and findings will be compiled and published in this years’ journal.
