At MLMC the College is always encouraging students to get involved in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine), particularly girls who have historically been under represented in these careers in Australia. Technology prefect Olivia Pettinella has worked hard to set up the Girls in STEMM project and encourage more girls to follow a STEMM pathway. Below Olivia writes about the project and her desire to get girls interested in STEMM, including subjects like Systems Engineering and Software Development:
The Girls in STEMM project is a series of workshops aimed to get junior girls interested in STEMM but mostly Technology-based subjects. I recently attended a series of RMIT lectures that discussed STEMM subjects and they regularly highlighted the low number of girls studying these subjects every year. Science and Mathematics subjects have a similar gender split at MLMC so I decided I wanted to focus on the mostly forgotten Technology and Engineering subjects. Having asked Technology teachers about student numbers and experiencing it myself last year, I found that there is on average one girl every year doing woodwork or IT-based classes here at MLMC.
I’m excited to say that last year there were three girls doing Systems Engineering, but there were none in Software Development. In a bid to try and change that, as well as wanting to provide girls with essential Technology-based skills, I decided to start a series of workshops that hopefully get girls interested in these fields.
I planned to run several workshops covering the basics of CAD programming for things like the 3D printer and laser cutter, coding open-sourced hardware like an Arduino and Raspberry Pi, basic python skills as well as basic wood and tool skills. I now have 11 girls interested in these workshops, which is more than expected.
Although my plan was for these workshops to be face to face, the impact of COVID-19 has redirected me to take them online and will push back things like wood and tool use that require on-site help. I ran my first workshop via a Google Meet this week. I have enlisted the help of my fellow STEM prefects Jamieson Manger (Science) and Ryan Finette (Mathematics), and I have also been supported by Faculty Learning Leaders Mrs Urszula Faulkner (Science), Ms Kerrie Dohrmann (Mathematics) and Mr Warren Stephenson (Technology) as well as Digital Literacy Coordinator Mr John Parlas to get this project up and running.
If this project proves to be a success, I hope to carry these workshops into next year, working with the next Technology prefect, as a way to promote Engineering Week in February and to keep girls interested in male-dominant fields. I hope to show girls that they are just as capable of working in these careers if they choose and that there is plenty of university and job site support that can help them achieve their goals. I hope girls are able to take away some basic skills from these workshops or at least a greater interest in Technology.
