Images of Learning and Teaching competition winners 2024

What could be more fun than wheelchair basketball with Paralympians and a cohort of occupational therapy students?! In this learning activity, people with lived experience of disability share their stories, strengths and struggles with small groups of occupational therapy students. Students learn about how people cope with traumatic injury, chronic conditions, stigma, and how to overcome challenges. Students take their knowledge of wheelchairs, prosthetics, manual handling, accessing bathrooms and modified vehicles into practice as they see what this looks like in the real world. Students identified one of the key learnings for them was the importance of listening to their clients and understanding that people are experts in their own lives. They reflected that it is one thing to know about the importance of person-centered care, but then to directly learn from people with lived experience emphasized why occupational therapists need to advocate with their clients and partner with people in their therapy journey.

With endorsement from the occupational therapy academic team, this learning activity was developed and hosted by Wheelchair Basketball SA and is a part of a sequence of learning activities. Tim Maloney OAM first meets the students in Year 1 when he challenges them to ask all the questions they can possibly think of about disability. Accompanied with lots of laughs, he plants the seed in their mind to be strengths focused in their work with people with disabilities and to be open to learning. When students then meet Tim on the basketball court in Year 3, they quickly realise that there is no way they can compete with him and the team when he has a basketball in hand and wheels in motion. For all students, it is a humbling, rewarding and deeply enriching learning experience, and a highlight of the occupational therapy program.

Student first place

The student first place winner is Sophie Oerlemans with her photograph, Dusk's Horizon: Illuminating the future of innovation.

Sophie also received $1000 for her win. She describes her image as follows:

In the biomanufacturing teaching Labs at the University of Adelaide, where the artistry of science meets the precision of engineering, students and educators collaborate to push the boundaries of possibility. As the sun sets, its golden light dances upon the lab’s windows, symbolising the union of nature’s beauty with the exactitude of human innovation. These labs, nestled within the School of Chemical Engineering, are more than just places of learning—they are crucibles of creation, where the future of biopharmaceuticals is carefully crafted.

Guided by experienced mentors, students immerse themselves in the intricate world of biopharmaceutical and bioprocess engineering, mastering the alchemy of life-saving medicines. From protein therapeutics to the cutting-edge development of RNA lipid nanoparticles, these labs transform theoretical knowledge into tangible innovation. The sunset’s glow mirrors the enlightenment within, where each lesson and discovery fuels the dawn of bioprocess engineering innovation. Just as the sun dips below the horizon to rise anew, the expertise cultivated here promises to illuminate new pathways in global health, empowering students to shape a brighter tomorrow.