MARCS BabyLab presents to Western Sydney high school students

MARCS BabyLab recently hosted visiting students from Al Sadiq College, Yagoona as part of the STEPS@UWS program.

STEPS@UWS was a Widening Participation program at Western Sydney University which partners with high schools across Greater Western Sydney and works with students in Years 10–12.

Around 50 students visited the MARCS Institute's Bankstown labs on Thursday 12 March, where BabyLab Leader Dr Marina Kalashnikova demonstrated some of the research conducted in the BabyLab.

Marina's research focuses on the early processes of lexical acquisition, and the relationship between early linguistic, social, and cognitive development.

She discussed the BabyLab and the type of research and equipment that is used, including a variety of different techniques and state of the art equipment such as behavioural paradigms, eye tracking, and electroencephalography (EEG).

Marina used slides with images and videos of experiments, and also showed some equipment first hand. She explained to students how this research could relate to degrees within Western Sydney University, and how it might relate to some subjects in high school.

The aim of the visit was to provide Western Sydney high school students with a small glimpse into some of the facilities at Western Sydney University, opening their minds to different options to studying, and showing that there's facilities at Western Sydney University to help with research.

You can find out more about research conducted at the BabyLab by visiting our research page.