What is your SDG:
We worked on the 5th global goal Gender Equality. The purpose of this goal is to empower women in all they do.
Global Data on this Goal:
30% of the researchers in the largest technology companies in the world are female, which is extremely skewed. This statistic is concerning and unacceptable for a 21st century society. We want gender, in these industries (like science), to be representative of the population (around 50,50). Otherwise, we will have an extremely male dominated view.
Local Data on this Goal:
In the school we have seen that in quite a few subjects, have a skew between the number of males and females. As we can see in the table below subjects like Applied information technology had no female enrollments at all. This table is from 2018 which is quite recent.
| Subject | M | F | Percentage (M:F) |
| AIT | 9 | 0 | 100:0% |
| Comp science | 12 | 3 | 80:20% |
| physic | 33 | 10 | 77:23% |
What is your problem that you worked on for this project:
We focused on the enrollments of female students in STEM subjects. Particularly the subjects in the table above.
Design Process:
We followed the design process, and our first step was to decide on a clear aim or goal for us to work towards. Our aim was to make a positive change to their opinion of STEM subjects to a group of students. The next step was to research the data from previous years in the college. After we saw the small amount of female enrolments in STEM subjects we just had to decide on what kind of workshop or activity we would do.
We decided we wanted to do a workshop with year 7s because they are more eager to participate, and they don’t have cemented views on what ATAR subjects they are doing yet. We were not quite sure what the workshop should be so we met with Ms Beattie and she told us we could consider making an app with the year 7’s, however we weren’t that confident with our technology skills ourselves so we decided to go in a different direction. We thought that we could get the students to try and make a raft that would hold a flower for at least 1 minutes.
What was the solution, was it successful?
We had decided to go with the flower/raft idea, as we thought it would be better suited to our project. Before the workshop I was quite anxious to have to speak with the year 7s and run the workshop, but after a while I got a bit more used to it, and I think that the workshop was overall a successful experience. The year 7’s were eager to learn and listen, and I think most of them learnt something from this experience. We sent out a post survey to the year 7’s and most found the workshop beneficial and are possibly considering STEM subjects in the future.
What would I do differently:
I think when we were planning the workshop, we left it a little late, so we were in a rush to try and think of what we were going to do with the year 7’s and it was quite stressful. So, I think I would manage my time better if I were to do this project again.
Where to next:
Banisha and I aren’t going to be doing this elective next term (unless we decide to switch our electives), however Quinn is, so she may decide to keep the project running. If I was to switch, I think I would continue improving this project, so we can make more of an impact.
Thank you:
I would like to thank Rachel and Rekha for their advice and knowledge throughout the project. Ms Donnelley has also assisted us with the entire project.
Powerpoint:
Video to presentation:
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