News

It is the middle of yet another challenging semester where Melbourne remains in lockdown. Exams are looming and placements will soon be wrapping up for the year. Apart from small picnics with close friends, there are few other things besides falling COVID-19 cases to look forward to. However, the In2science team always have something up their sleeves. To lift spirits and connect with our outstanding community of volunteer university student mentors, we organised an online event that celebrated the enthusiasm, diverse experiences and incredible minds of this huge, multi-university family.

Forty-five mentors from La Trobe University, The University of Melbourne, Swinburne University of Technology, RMIT University and Monash University spent a Thursday evening online to partake in a few hours of laughter and friendly competition. The session was hosted by our talented University of Melbourne coordinators, Hayden Dalton and Julia Cleghorn, who began the proceedings by randomly creating small groups of mentors from our partner universities. This was a unique challenge for participants because it is a rare thing to partner up with people you don’t necessarily know in social gatherings. However, one of the amazing benefits of the In2science program is that it brings together like-minded individuals from multiple universities in a space to interact where they would not normally.

Each group created a team name and participated in games and quizzes to test their diverse general knowledge and STEM skills. The prize was worth competing for; UberEats vouchers and potential free dinners were at stake! Once the winning team was crowned the next item on the agenda was something the other In2science coordinators were not looking forward to.

For the remainder of the evening, each In2science University Coordinator was invited to share their university and STEM journey in one minute before throwing themselves at the mercy of the mentors in the room. Mentors were invited to ask anything of their coordinators, and In2science Director, Alison Every fielded the questions to an eager crowd.

Two hours went by in a blink of an eye. In2science mentors and coordinators learned much from each other and felt more connected than ever. For a few hours the challenges of the year were forgotten, and we were reminded of what we can look forward to when they are finally behind us.

Thank you to everyone who participated in our special event, it was a memorable experience that In2science hopes to replicate as soon as we can – and in person, too.

CSL Behring Broadmeadows, an arm of the global biotechnology leader CSL, has announced a 4 year partnership with In2science to enhance the delivery of STEM peer-mentoring to local schools in the Hume community.

The partnership is the first of its kind for CSL Behring Broadmeadows, who will now support In2science in providing schools the City of Hume additional STEM university mentors and outreach opportunities. With CSL Behring as an official partner of In2science, more than 150 lower secondary school students in Melbourne’s outer north-western suburbs will be supported over the next 4 years. To complement the In2science program, CSL Behring’s highly skilled STEM employees will head into classrooms and encourage science and mathematics students to consider the vast STEM career opportunities available after university.

In2science Program Director, Alison Every is thrilled CSL Behring is an official partner to the program. “Having corporate partners such as CSL Behring allows In2science to recruit more student mentors, provide better learning outcomes to the students they help teach in the classroom, and ultimately encourage school students to study STEM subjects in the future” she said.

“We are really excited to harness the knowledge and experience of CSL Behring’s people to enhance the In2science program for students in the Broadmeadows area,” she said.

CSL Behring’s parent company, CSL, proudly sponsored In2science’s 2019 Annual Awards, and we are is looking forward to working collaboratively with CSL Behring Broadmeadows over the next four years to deliver and further improve the In2science program for students in the Hume community.

To find out more about how Industry partnerships can support STEM engagement for secondary school students, please contact In2science Program Director, Dr Alison Every.

In2science is delighted to announce that the Howmet Aerospace Foundation is funding our peer-mentoring program to support more secondary school students in south-east Melbourne in 2021.

In 2019, In2science recruited and trained more than 300 mentors who mentored over 5000 students. Thanks to the Howmet Aerospace Foundation, In2science can now recruit and train an additional 20 university student mentors who will be placed in up to 10 low socio-economic (SES) schools in south-east Melbourne in 2021. This will help In2science increase STEM engagement and career aspirations for more than 350 Victorian secondary school students.

The Howmet Aerospace Foundation is the charitable arm of Howmet Aerospace, a leader in advanced engineered solutions, and invests in STEM education and development initiatives, particularly to increase access to STEM fields in underrepresented groups. Howmet Fastening Systems is based in south-east Melbourne. This partnership provides an opportunity for Howmet employees to participate in STEM engagement with our partner schools in a meaningful capacity. Importantly, students will have a better understanding of the tangible connections between the STEM curriculum and the myriad opportunities available when they pursue a rewarding career in STEM.

To find out more about how Industry partnerships can support STEM engagement for secondary school students, please contact In2science Program Director, Dr Alison Every.

On the evening of Wednesday 5 August, Victorians braced themselves for a second lockdown period meaning that young people across the state would once again be separated from face-to-face learning, their peers and formative life experiences. It was an opportune time then for In2science, in partnership with Engineers Australia, to host a national panel of esteemed STEM experts to discuss how we support students in these unprecedented times.

The panel focused on innovative approaches to the discussion: In the COVID-19 environment, how do we engage students in STEM disciplines? Looking beyond the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, we enlisted STEM experts and educators who have long standing experience working with students facing barriers to education. We were thrilled to have Australian Government Women in STEM Ambassador, Author, Astronomer and Broadcaster, Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith as keynote speaker. Prof Harvey-Smith then joined our panel, which included CEO of Engineers Australia, Dr Bronwyn Evans, founder of Deadly Science, NSW Young Australian of the Year and Indigenous STEM champion, Mr Corey Tutt, and Junior School Principal at Melton Secondary College, STEM educator and former In2science mentor, Ms Kathryn Sobey. This panel discussion was moderated by In2science Chairman, the Honourable Professor John Brumby AO. 

Prof Harvey-Smith kicked off the event with an inspiring keynote address targeting the barriers facing young people progressing in STEM careers. Professor Harvey-Smith spoke about how holistic learning experiences are powerful tools to engage school students, particularly for young women. These include experiences which are drawn from real world connections between community and career outcomes rather than rote or content-based learning, “This will show our young people that it is possible for a STEM career to take them somewhere really special”.

An insightful discussion followed on the very tangible impact COVID-19 has on young people by Melton Secondary College Junior Principal Kathryn Sobey, the role that industry can play in creating partnership opportunities with schools and communities from Engineers Australia CEO Bronwyn Evans and novel ways we can create meaningful engagement with young people from rural and remote communities, particularly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, from Deadly Science founder, Corey Tutt. The discourse and commentary was refreshing in a time when many Australians are navigating the anxiety of an uncertain future. More importantly, the event highlights that the current crisis creates an opportunity for positive collaboration to support our young people in their STEM journeys in a post-COVID-19 world.

Over 220 participants joined this live discussion and were able to ask questions in real time, sparking a renewed enthusiasm for tackling the challenging road ahead. To watch (or re-watch) this event, click here. Here you will also find the contact details and links to get in touch with our speakers, or you can contact the team at In2science directly [email protected].  Finally, In2science expresses its profound gratitude to Engineers Australia and our generous event sponsor, CMP Consulting Group’s Gems in STEM program.

Seventeen students from four regional schools in Western Australia’s southern Peel region were encouraged to consider a career in STEM this year thanks to the launch of In2science’s eMentoring program by The University of Western Australia (UWA) with support from the Alcoa Foundation. Volunteer university mentors, through UWA’s Aspire program, connected weekly with Year 9 – 11 students online to build STEM aspirations and close the disadvantage gap between regional, outer metropolitan and metropolitan school students.

Bronwen Veale, UWA School Partnerships Coordinator, who oversaw this successful pilot reflected on the importance of peer mentoring, “Being able to connect online in this way means that high school students can still meet and learn from university students, despite living away from the Perth metropolitan area”.

In its first week, Bronwen observed enormous enthusiasm from the participating students of Pinjarra Senior High School, Harvey Senior High School, Gilmore College and Coondanup College.

The pilot, which ran for 5 weeks, concentrated on building rapport, outlining goals and increasing student participation and engagement in STEM by breaking down negative stereotypes, forming positive associations with students’ sense of personal identity and providing them with tangible examples that STEM is interesting, relevant and important.

Nine Aspire Ambassadors studying STEM degrees were chosen to mentor students who were carefully selected by their schools. Selected students demonstrated an interest in STEM and either had diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, identified as being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent, were first-in-family to consider tertiary education or were facing financial disadvantage.

Mentor, Vish, who is studying a Bachelor of Biomedical Science, was excited to connect with students from his old school. When reflecting on his own student experience at Gilmore College, he said, “I graduated from a low socio-economic high school and so going to that high school I felt that I missed out on these university connections and opportunities because it was located so far away from university.”

Treasure, a mentor studying a Doctor of Medicine at UWA, expressed the importance of role models, saying, “Part of you having dreams and aspirations is keeping those dreams alive and sometimes when you don’t have those mentors in your lives it’s easy for those dreams to fade”.

An Qi, a mentor studying a Bachelor of Biomedical Science placed with Coodanup College said at the conclusion of the pilot, “It was definitely a great experience for me. I could see that both my student mentees and I have developed new skills throughout the program. I developed better organisational, communication and leadership skills. They gained awareness of pathways that are available to them, study tips and science careers. My mentees made my time really enjoyable as an eMentor. I could see that they all shined in their own way and developed more interest in entering university and the science field. I believe our positive interactions during the program really helped us achieve more than what we expected. We frequently communicated about high school experience and future aspirations. The bond we made definitely helped us open up and learn from each other.”

In2science is delighted that our highly trained mentors can spark enthusiasm for STEM study and careers in a growing number of secondary school students around the country. In2science is exceedingly grateful to the Aspire program team and the Alcoa Foundation for their outstanding execution of, and support for, this important initiative.

To round off a very memorable semester, In2science wanted to celebrate the dedication, enthusiasm and resilience of our mentors through an uncertain and challenging semester. The move, en masse, to online modes of communication and collaboration presented a great opportunity for mentors from our partner universities all over Victoria to join us for a celebration and professional development workshop where they learned skills to use in the future as mentors and in their careers.

In2science collaborated with local Thornbury collective, Groupwork Centre to provide our mentors with a dynamic online session on effective engagement and facilitation skills in mentoring. Facilitators Liz Franzmann and Henry Fowkes designed the workshop to focus on the scientific perspective of how young people engage online and to further empower their mentees with emotional resilience. In learning about the SCARF model, mentors came away with a framework to facilitate meaningful conversations with mentees so participants feel safe and empowered to share ideas and opinions.

This was the first time In2science offered an online professional development session and it was Groupwork Centre’s largest group of attendees in an online training session. Over 50 In2science mentors attended with all partner universities, La Trobe University, The University of Melbourne, Swinburne University of Technology, RMIT University and Monash University well represented. There was a healthy mix of content delivery and application using smaller groups in breakout rooms, with many mentors commenting that 1.5 hours just flew by.

Feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Over 90% of mentors agreed that they learned valuable new content and now had strategies they could confidently apply in their own mentoring. One mentor commented that, “just chatting with other people who have similar values in science education” was a highlight, and another said that the role-playing activity in small groups to illustrate communication micro-skills helped them “learn a lot…since it was a practical and real example of what could actually happen.”

It was a pleasure to host Groupwork Centre and provide In2science mentors with a valuable experience they can use when interacting with young people and others in future workplaces. We look forward to working with Groupwork Centre later in the year to expand the foundational skills presented in this initial workshop.