REPORTING ON 'A NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM'

Chasing after more than 600 secondary school students as they swarm across the Science Museum performing experiments and games is a challenge in itself. But imagine doing it overnight and providing a live broadcast of the proceedings.

That was the task of Journalism students who were invited to join 'A Night at the Museum', a community event co-organised by the Faculties of Science and Engineering in November 2011.

The students set up a Facebook page and website and provided a live broadcast as they videoed and photographed secondary school students at the museum.

Their participation was organised by the late Diane Stormont, Senior Teaching Consultant of the Journalism and Media Studies Centre, and Tutor Kevin Lau said they pushed the students to meet professional standards.

"We were tough on them on purpose to make them learn on their feet. This is how it works in the field," he says. "We found that afterwards students expected more of themselves and they felt they could actually do this to a professional level."

Michael Kim, who was a second- year Bachelor of Journalism student at the time, said it was a challenge trying to figure out what needed to be included in their filming and what they could leave out. "It was exciting and scary and it was all brand new. You're trying to keep up with hundreds of high school students and they're amped up as well," he says.

The Journalism students also had to be aware of what their classmates were doing as they coordinated their coverage. Elisa Qiu, a Master's student, says: "The biggest thing I learned from this event was team spirit. It's important especially for a live reporting environment. I also refined my camera skills under an intense workload and I learned how to deal with pressure when journalism is about accuracy and speed," she says.

The Faculty of Science similarly coped with a heavy workload. More than 70 students and staff were involved in organising 12 different hands-on workshops and running the event over two nights as part of HKU's Centenary celebrations.

"It involved a huge amount of investment of effort on our part," says Professor Sun Kwok, the Dean of Science. "But looking back, it was a very successful event and a very valuable experience for the students."