64 schoolgirls from 60 schools join national STEM program
Program to receive additional $1.2 million to expand learning and mentoring for girls
Sixty-four schoolgirls from 36 regional towns and every capital city across Australia will be matched with outstanding female scientists, engineers and mathematicians at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra on 13 December to begin six months of Curious Minds learning and mentoring in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).
The Year 9 and 10 high-achieving students from 60 schools will travel from country areas and cities right across Australia to be part of a program that immerses underrepresented girls in extension learning, including mentoring from female role models working in a variety of STEM fields.
More than half of the students selected for Curious Minds this year are from regional Australia. Participants are selected based on their performance in three high school-based science, informatics and mathematics competitions, after which preference is given to students from regional and rural communities and schools at the lower scale of socio-educational advantage.
"Curious Minds addresses both gender bias and any geographical limitation gaps by offering this experience to high-achieving schoolgirls who have had limited opportunities. Programs such as this are a vital undertaking if we are going to encourage and retain young women's participation in STEM at school and beyond," says Curious Minds Patron Dr Cathy Foley.
The Curious Minds program matches students with mentors working in traditionally male-dominated careers. This year's mentors include engineers, physicists, mathematicians, research and medical scientists, chemists and astrophysicists.
"I am very pleased to welcome this important mentoring program to ANU. As the first female Dean of the ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science, I am passionate about diversity in STEM, says Professor Elanor Huntington, who is a speaker at Curious Minds.
The students will spend five days at ANU in the first of two intensive modules of learning across physics, informatics, chemistry, biology, mathematics and Earth and environmental science. They will work with their mentors on projects over a six-month period.
The work of Curious Minds has attracted $1.2 million in new Australian Government funding under the recently announced Women's Economic Security Package. The funding will help Curious Minds to expand its work to increase girls' participation in STEM subjects and counter declining Year 12 enrolments in traditional sciences (biology, chemistry and physics) and advanced mathematics.
Curious Minds is funded by the Australian Government Department of Education and Training through the National Innovation and Science Agenda, and is supported by ANU and the State Street Foundation through Give2Asia. The Australian Mathematics Trust and Australian Science Innovations jointly administer the program. These organisations also reach thousands of talented students and involve hundreds of teachers and schools in Mathematics and Science Olympiad programs.
KEY STEM FACTS:
* Although the total number of Year 12 enrolments in Australia increased by 16% from 1992 to 2010, enrolments in traditional science (biology, chemistry and physics) and advanced mathematics have declined by 5-10%. The declines are 10% for biology, 5% for chemistry, and 7% for both physics and advanced mathematics.1
* Australia's performance in Year 8 mathematics and science has stagnated over the past 20 years, while many other countries have shown improvements over the same period, according to the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS 2015).2
* Girls can be deterred from STEM careers because of: a lack of female role models to exemplify the suitability of STEM for girls; a mismatch between perceived abilities and confidence that results in reduced female representation in STEM; and pervasive cultural beliefs that STEM is a male domain.3
* Australian students' performance in scientific literacy has declined significantly since 2006 by the equivalent of half a school year (PISA 2015).4
* STEM skilled jobs are growing at 1.5 times faster than any other job sector (Australian Bureau of Statistics).
1. "The continuing decline of science and mathematics in Australian high schools", Kennedy, Lyons and Quinn, Vol. 60, No. 2, 2014.
2. "TIMSS 2015: A first look at Australia's results", Thomson, Wernert, O'Grady and Rodrigues, Australian Council for Educational Research.
3. "Busting Myths about Women in STEM", Prinsley, Beavis and Clifford-Hordacre, Office of the Chief Scientist Occasional Paper Series, Issue 13, November 2016.
4. PISA 2015: A first look at Australia's results. Thompson, De Bortoli and Underwood, Australian Council for Education Research, 2016.
