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DEAN’S OVERVIEW
■ Let the Research Speak for Itself Part 1 – an international collaboration with a consortium of universities ■ Inaugural Lecture for Professor Tannecia Stephenson ■ A Special UWI 75 th Lecture with Prof. Paul Reese: Harvesting a Selection of the Fruits of Nature ■ A Seminar in honour of Professor emeritus Kenneth Eugene Magnus: The Legacy of Prof. Kenneth Magnus: Transforming Lives, Institutions and the Economy. ■ ChatGPT and Education: Threat or Opportunity – a public lecture? ■ The weekly Biotechnology, Chemistry, Life sciences and Mathematics Seminar Series ■ Disaster Heritage: Can Memorialising Disaster Make People More Resil- ient? – A Discussion forum. • STEM Building in High Schools: The Department of Mathematics contin- ued its successful annual Jamaican Mathematical Olympiad program. The 2022-2023 edition saw the participation of 2,800 students from 92 schools and a return to a face-to-face experience. Similarly, the Faculty returned to face-to-face modality for its annual CAPE workshops in chemistry, biology, physics, mathematics, geography, and computer science. These workshops remain a valuable resource with over 1,500 high school students from more than 30 schools across Jamaica participating in the January 2023 edition. In collaboration with Addiscoders Inc, the CHOR Foundation, and members of the diaspora, the Department of Computing hosted the second edition of the JamCoders free residential Summer Camp. This unique program exposed 50 secondary students from Jamaica to a comprehensive four-week journey into coding and algorithms during the summer of 203. The program’s success was greatly enhanced by collaboration with 12 partner organizations. Addition- ally, the Faculty coordinated a Summer Internship program in conjunction with the Bethel Baptist Church, placing eight secondary students in various departments and the Health Center to provide them with valuable on-the-job experience. The Faculty also continues to play a significant role in engaging numerous secondary institutions, while serving as a central ‘resource centre’ for laboratory activities and educational tours. • STEM Teaching : The Building Out Our STEM Teachers (BOOST) program, established in 2021, was designed to address the persistent gap caused by the annual migration of STEM educators in Jamaica by cultivating a steady supply of high-calibre STEM teachers. Since its inception, BOOST has successfully recruited 34 Teacher Fellows, with 28 currently active, across 23 different schools spanning eight parishes. Notably, the program has achieved an impressive
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