Late last year several Collegiate Middle School students were lucky enough to be invited to do a ‘Future Scientists’ show with the national award-winning radio show and podcast That’s What I Call Science (TWICS).
Listen Online
Research shows that the optimal way to encourage young girls to pursue emerging high-growth roles, particularly those requiring STEM math skills, is to expose them to the professional and personal experiences of actual female role models with a successful professional trajectory in STEM fields.
GIRLS IN STEM: IS IT A FEMALE ROLE-MODEL THING?
(GONZÁLEZ-PÉREZ S, MATEOS DE CABO R AND SÁINZ M (2020) FRONT. PSYCHOL. 11:2204. DOI: 10.3389/FPSYG.2020.02204)
Our students worked alongside an incredible group of women working within Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) fields to write and produce their own show.
Over two workshops our students identified their areas of interest and worked with Founding Director and Medical Researcher, Niamh Chapman, to source scientific experts to answer their questions.
Taking advantage of the new Innovative Futures Lab, our student journalists worked with the TWICS team. Once the nerves settled down, our students breezed through their interviews like professionals.
In the first workshop, our students prepped to interview their expert guest. Our Year 6 students; Zoe, Darcy and Hwee-Lin, reached for the stars and were excited about everything Astrology.
They were linked up with prominent and inspiring Astrologer Karlie Noon; the first indigenous woman in Australia to graduate with a double degree in Maths and Physics and internationally multi-awarding within her field.
Our Year 5 students; Isabella, Ruby and Allegra, were fascinated by an article they had read about ancient viruses living within melting polar icecaps and interviewed Professor of Microbiology and Leader of the Food Safety and Innovation Centre at the University of Tasmania, John Bowman, for the inside scoop.
