Go Girl, Go for IT
by Elise Dunstan
What’s more fun than playing different types of games? What about getting showbags with oodles of giveaways, sharing a space with miniature and giant-sized robots, solving puzzles with friends, and learning about careers pathways from interesting and dynamic women working in STEM!!
It was great to see ten Kew High School students seize this experiential learning opportunity at Deakin Uni in August. The ‘Go Girl, Go for IT’ event involved a trade show expo, Women in STEM panel discussion in the lecture theatre, and focus group activities utilising different technology. The students engaged in problem-solving, critical thinking, analyses and innovation – all core skills for job security into the future.
Something I learnt about STEM, and myself, was that there are certain careers that you can choose based on your passion and personality. Participants could do a survey about choosing a career in STEM and my result was a cognitive computer analyst. I had no idea what a cognitive computer analyst does until it was explained that people who have that job are responsible for analysing AI. After learning about that, it got me interested in learning robotics and STEM, and gave me the encouragement to pursue subjects like maths and science so that can I consider more career pathways in this field. Visiting Deakin University was a golden opportunity to encourage girls to explore more about a path involving IT.
The day was fun as you got to do a lot of stuff and were given a lot of stuff, and it was very informative.” Carys said the speeches about women in STEM and IT was also fun and really broadened her view on what STEM is about. She said, “It got me considering a job in IT for the future.