Girls in STEM

On Friday 6 September, eight of our top Year 9 and Year 10 students attended a Girls in STEM event held at the North Metropolitan TAFE. The Honorary Sue Ellery, Minister for Education, gave an opening address outlining the importance of encouraging girls to study STEM subjects, particularly in the ATAR years, as these strive to prepare students for careers that require this important skill set.

Our students attended five different sessions:

Session 1 – Animation – introduced students to a program that allowed them to create an animated fish swimming across the screen.

Session 2 – Cosmetic Chemistry – saw the students make their own lip balm from coconut oil and beeswax (getting the correct ratio of these two ingredients was sometimes tricky!).

Session 3 – Laboratory Technology – was an opportunity for the students to work on their microscope skills as they conducted a hair analysis exercise. Did you know that two very similar looking hairs can look incredibly different under the microscope?

Session 4 – Paper Electronics – put the girls’ physics knowledge to the test! Here, they were shown how to construct a circuit using a small battery, copper tape and a little LED to create a greeting card that lights up.

Session 5 – 3D Sculpting – was definitely a favourite! Students learnt how to use a digital sculpting program called ZBrush and created some incredibly imaginative pieces. To view a video follow the link: https://youtu.be/0QDZfRAxNgU

For more information follow the link:  https://www.northmetrotafe.wa.edu.au/latestnews/full-stem-ahead-school-girls