STEAM News

International Day of Women and Girls in STEM

On 11th February 2020 , 21 girls accompanied by Ms Vita Cottone represented Viewbank College to celebrate the International day of Girls and Women in STEM at a function co-hosted by RMIT University and Science and Technology’s Super Stars of STEM.  The students heard from prominent female STEM leaders and also had an opportunity to ask questions directly to the scientist in a round of ‘Speed Dating'.  Following the event, students were given a very special tour of the high tech labs at RMIT all thanks to  Prof Vipul Bansal and Prof Ravi Shukla (a parent of the College), who organised this at a very short notice .

The following link is a report published by Women’s Agenda on the event

https://womensagenda.com.au/leadership/four-women-in-science-share-career-tips-on-international-day-of-women-and-girls-in-science/

 

 

"On Tuesday the 11th of February, a group of 21 girls (myself included) had the great honour of heading into the city and meeting Victorian’s leading women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). 

We also had the opportunity to visit some of the many highly advanced biochemistry, chemistry and microbiology labs at RMIT University.  It was such an amazing and unforgettable experience!  We also had the chance to meet Australia’s Superstars of STEM.  Speed dating’ and meeting such respectable people has opened up a treasure chest of insight into the careers, skills and achievements that STEM can provide.  Meeting the friendly faces working in the labs has also shown me how enjoyable and unique it is to work in this vast field of expertise!

 

Unsurprisingly, statistics show that women and girls are currently much less involved with STEM compared to men. The fact that we got to meet so many influential women who love STEM as much as we do is what makes the experience so special! After going on this excursion, I highly encourage everybody, especially girls, to take interest in STEM and make it a key part of our school community.

 

This experience has enabled me to delve deeper into STEM and the opportunities it has to offer. I would like to express my utmost gratitude to Ms Cottone for coming along to support us and Ms Nair for organising the day. We’d like to say a huge thank you to the empowering women who talked to us about their accomplishments, jobs and passions, as well as the wonderful people at RMIT University who made this event happen.

 

Happy International Day of Women and Girls in STEM!"

 

Belle Shi (9E)

The Young Persons Plan for the Planet  - Viewbank Teachers visit to India to support partner schools

During the school holidays in December/January, three of us from Viewbank College, Ms Ruth Perkins, Mr Finn Mulhall and myself travelled to India to support, mentor and understand first hand the challenges faced by our partner YPPP schools in Mumbai.  Following from the Singapore Conference  which saw our students closely connecting with the Indian students, we felt it was necessary for us  to contribute and support the students and teachers in developing their own plans for the SDG’s they had identified as the critical ones for their community.  Across all the schools (13 in total who had initiated YPPP to some extent) good sanitation and hygiene was a top priority.  To help them kickstart their YPPP programme we took part in a cleanliness drive in the community which was organised by a school.  We also conducted two day  workshops for the teachers in implementation of YPPP and developing  STEM project aligned with SDG’s to promote 21st century  skills.  We demonstrated of how with minimal resources it was possible to drive this focus.  Ms Perkins also gave valuable career guidance tips to teachers.  It was a very humbling experience to see the difficulties with which staff and students navigated their teaching and learning experiences.

Veena Nair

Technologies Domain Leader