Showing students they don’t need to be Einstein to study STEM at uni: new program

Inspired NT’s Stage 2 Real Science Program will see a new generation of thinkers and innovators get a taste of what it’s like to study Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics alongside real academics.

Postgraduate students will act as mentors to students from Casuarina Senior College and Darwin High School for the coming seven months, guiding them through STEM-related projects from planning and execution to presentation. 

For secondary students it’s an opportunity to experience what it’s like to study at uni, to learn about the tertiary pathways open to them, and develop confidence in themselves and their abilities, while for postgraduate students, they’ll gain some needed practice with leadership and supervision skills, time management, empathy and flexibility, through their mentoring. 

Program coordinator and CDU senior lecturer in STEM Pathways Dr Carla Eisemberg tells EducationHQ the course came about as a result of a clear need for there to be a better integration of higher education with students all the way from pre-school to Year 12.

“Sometimes it is a bit disconnected, and students don’t quite understand what it is to be in university when they finish high school, particularly in the areas of science and technology,” Eisenberg says.

“So we are trying to establish short courses, activation events with this course, that will help us to build that momentum with the students, so they understand what it is to be in a university studying in this area."

Eisemberg says something the university uncovered when setting up the program was that many students, particularly girls and usually from remote areas, don’t have anybody in their family that has done anything in science and technology, let alone gone to university.

“They have this perception that you need to be an Einstein to go to university and to be a scientist or an engineer,” she says.

“They need to know that all you need to be is curious. You just need to like solving problems, and the knowledge you will get, well, everybody is smart enough for that.”

Eisemberg believes the way that pop culture portrays scientists and engineers can be quite a destructive deterrent for these kids.

“So we’re just trying to convey to kids that we were once just like you, we were not necessarily the smartest in the class, but we’ve enjoyed wonderful careers in these fields.”

Eisemberg herself is from inland Brazil. Encouraged by her family to consider medicine, she instead held a deep passion for animals and is now recognised globally for her extensive work with turtles and tortoises.

“I wanted to work with dolphins, you know, having watched so many David Attenborough documentaries,” she laughs.

“Volunteering is a great way to find out what you like, so after spending six months with dolphins I found out two things – I didn’t like being in the sea that much, so that was a problem, and the other thing was, I didn’t like working with dolphins, I wanted something a little bit different.”

A turning point for the zoologist was volunteering again, but this time with frogs in a lab

“The professor I was working with turned to me and said, ‘you know you can work with frogs if you want, and you can work with lizards, because it’s a reptiles and amphibians lab'. And then he said, ‘Or, you know, you can work with turtles?’ And it was like the sky had opened up,” she says.

“It was an epiphany, it was an ‘aha’ moment, you know? And I was like, ‘Can you?’ I genuinely didn’t think that someone could do that. And he was like, ‘Yeah, you can’. And it became my obsession,” she laughs.

“We need people with everyday skills to become scientists and engineers, because we need people who have different ways of thinking,” CDU's Dr Carla Eisemberg says. “There is no innovation without diversity.”

After working in a turtle lab in Brazil for a little while, a professor in Canberra indicated that he was looking for someone to undertake a PhD in Paua New Guinea, who could handle the heat and humidity there and ‘slightly complicated situations’.

“He thought that someone working in the Amazon would be a perfect fit,” Eisemberg laughs.

“So it was a bit of luck and a bit of, like, trying hard for what you want.”

Eisemberg’s shaping of the Stage 2 Real Science Program, particularly the buddying up of postgrad students with their younger high school peers, is also based to some extent on her own experiences, and on what she’s observed taking place in universities everywhere.

“As I’ve said, high school students don’t necessarily understand what it is to be in university, but I also think that it’s much better if they hear from someone young, who is a student halfway through that experience themselves, to share that with them – it’s far more likely that there will be much more of a connection,” she says.

“So I wanted that for the high school students, but what I’ve noticed – and it’s actually happened to me and happens to most professionals, scientists, researchers in university – is that you finish your PhD and then very quickly, you turn from being someone who has a supervisor, to being a supervisor yourself with not much experience.”

Eisemberg felt that this could be a win-win situation.

“It’s a safe environment, there are people there to give them (the postgrad students) guidance the whole time, people that know that it’s their first time and the stakes are really low, because they have a teacher there, who will also keep an eye on their project.”

Students are matched based on a range of criteria, including personality types, interests, project types – and one of the important strengths and attractions for schools with the program is its flexibility.

“I think it needs to cater to the school’s needs, right?” Eisemberg suggests.

“So for some schools it fits that the program runs from now until October, so it’s long-term.

“Other schools will say, ‘Oh, we need two weeks, we just need someone here to help us on this science week project’ or something like that, and another school will be like, ‘Oh, it’s for Term 3’.

Eisemberg says that CDU are basically keeping a live list of potential mentors, who can be activated according to the needs of schools.

“Because what I find, too, is that when as a university we come to schools with something really rigid, like a package, it’s actually really unfair on the schools.

“We need to be cognisant that there is a lot happening there, and they have all the things that they need to make sure that happens - and for a project like this, it’s much easier for us to be the flexible party and not them.”

CDU PhD students Cedric Tan and Girum Gebremeskel Kanno are among this year’s mentors, and both are eager to share their knowledge and their personal and academic journeys into STEM.

Tan’s research involves the development and testing of metals to reduce their damage within corrosive environments, while Kanno is exploring how Artificial Intelligence can be integrated into the environmental life cycle assessment of healthcare plastic wastes. 

“I’m hoping the students will realise that science isn’t necessarily scary,” Tan says. 

“It’s a very involved experience. It’s a lot of problem solving and being sure you’re engaged, but if you can find something you’re passionate about, you’re going to get something out of it.”

Kanno says STEM can be for everyone, and “it should be fun”.

“People might assume science is hard but so long as you’re interested, you can easily challenge and solve complex problems,” he says.

“We live in a world full of environmental problems and we need more people with a different approach to solving these problems.”

Casuarina Senior College teacher Gregg Barker says a pilot program last year saw students involved in a variety of projects such as using of Microsoft Hololens mixed reality in STEM education, identifying the best growing environment for mushrooms, and dismantling and rebuilding a lawnmower engine.

“Working with a mentor from outside school provided our students with new technical perspectives, helped them to become more confident and professional communicators, developed their ICT skills using MS Teams, and facilitated their planning, problem solving and independent learning skills,” Barker says.

For more information on Inspired NT’s Stage 2 Real Science Program, click here. 

The 2024 NYSF National Youth STEM Summit will also be held at the Australian National University in Canberra from Sat, Aug 17-Mon, Aug 19, 2024. Aimed at 18-25-year-olds ready to kickstart their career in science and technology, the three-day event is designed to help students level up their personal and professional capabilities to establish themselves as leading candidates in the Australian STEM landscape. To register, click here.