Robogals WA trip to Geraldton a roaring success
Written by Emma Norton, Schools & Students Manager, Robogals WA
It might seem overly ambitious to reach out to almost 1000 rural high school students over just 2 days, but the ever-adventurous committee of Robogals WA were recently able to participate in Scitech's Science Fair… and do just that!
Thanks to our wonderful sponsor Sinosteel, 3 of our committee members had the pleasure of visiting the large town of Geraldton (only a few hours out of Perth) to interact with almost 1000 high school students from the area. Four schools' worth of students in years 10 to 12 flooded the Geraldton community hall to listen to talks, participate in engaging activities and get career advice from about twenty stalls, all promoting different careers and studies in science and engineering. The stallholders included university departments, the Gingin Gravity Discovery Centre, wildlife parks, ICRAR, CSIRO and even the local police department.
The Robogals WA girls, Jess, Adina and Emma, were able to set up shop next to the airport security stall with our robots, showbags and lollipops. Not to be outdone by the cute native animals of the Perth Zoo outreach team, we brought our adorable robots—Alpha Rex, Robogator and a nifty little car. We were able to demonstrate this technology to the crowds of interested students, with Robogator being an obvious favourite. A definite highlight of the fair was encouraging a huge crowd of girls and boys to chant "robot fight! Robot fight!" as we unleashed the power of Robogator and Alpha Rex upon each other! Our highly successful stall could often be seen completely swamped by eager students, all attempting to answer chemistry and physics questions for a lollipop.
At the organisers' request, Adina and Emma delivered talks to almost 100 students about studying engineering. Watching the girls in the audience become inspired by our passion for engineering, we were asked questions like "what's the coolest thing you've ever built?" and "do you get to wear a hard hat?" I'm glad to report that we found that about equal proportions of girls and boys, when asked if they liked science and maths, answered yes. We were able to encourage this interest by absolutely dissolving the myth that engineering and science is just for boys. Jess, Emma and Adina, with our degrees in environmental, electrical and civil engineering respectively, spoke about just how much variety there is in the field of engineering. Many students were excited to speak with Jess (our resident environmental engineering student) about the prospect of protecting the environment by working in the industry, an option that few had considered before.
It was exciting to see young girls become intrigued enough by the robots to start asking questions about studying engineering. One girl was genuinely amazed at our little car and its ability to follow a black track and avoid walls; she proceeded to ask a torrent of intelligent questions. I was so amazed by this—while the car's program was reasonably simple, this student was extremely inquisitive and could appreciate the utter awesomeness that is robotics. As someone who studies electronic engineering, I was able to assure her that we did indeed get to play with robots, computers and cool electronic gadgets.
Overall, the Science Fair was a huge success for Robogals WA and went better than we could have imagined. It has had a great effect on our exposure in WA, with Adina being interviewed on ABC radio and the three of us appearing in the Geraldton local newspaper. We hope that over those 2 days we were able to make a positive impact in the lives of the students of Geraldton—both girls and boys—and that we will be able to participate in similar thrilled events in the future.
Season for Sydney
Written by Ming Poon, Marketing Manager, Robogals UNSW
As it's nearing the end of semester one of 2011, its time for Robogals UNSW to reflect on what we've achieved in these past few months. It is wonderful to know that all our volunteers are passionate about promoting engineering amongst young girls – even though many are male, science related or engineering students!
During O-Week, we held a Robogals stall, which recruited close to 80 new volunteers, and invited all UNSW students to participate in our very first t-shirt design competition (for a $50 prize voucher)! The end result of our competition was a spunky 'I Heart Robots' design by Laura Lau, a UNSW engineering student, which is currently already being worn by our volunteers at robotics workshops!
Our newly recruited volunteers then eagerly participated in training workshops, alongside school workshops—organised to accommodate for any volunteers who joined later in the semester and who wanted to participate in any upcoming workshops.
Although Robogals UNSW were only able to successfully organise lessons with two schools this semester- Sydney Girls High and Ravenswood School for Girls, the representative teachers from both Ravenswood and Sydney Girls were impressed with our robotics workshops. The Year 7 Sydney Girls High workshop was held at the school premises and was an event thoroughly enjoyed by all. On the other end, teachers from Ravenswood were delighted with our workshop and expressed their interests in further involvement with us. We are hoping to organise more activities for them further along in the year, and suggested for their possible participation in RoboCup Junior in August!
The positive influence of Robogals has been able to extend beyond the UNSW Kensington campus, as many schools have opted to invest in LEGO robotics kits for their students after workshops with our volunteers!
Furthermore, we were able to maintain good relationships with past and new schools and establish contacts with other organisations such as Engineers Australia, Women in Renewable Engineering and Powerhouse Museum Sydney. Discussions are also underway for a possible luncheon between volunteers and Macquarie Bank, as well as a presentation for Women in Renewable Engineering. We are excited and ready!Updates
Congratulations to Marita Cheng for receiving The Nancy Fairfax Churchill Fellowship to study strategies used to most effectively engage female schoolgirls in science, engineering and technology. Marita was one of 107 Australians to be awarded a 2011 Churchill Fellowship, which provides recipients with funds to travel overseas to further expertise in their given field. She will use the knowledge she gains to enhance Robogals' operations and activities. Her Fellowship will take her to the USA, Jamaica, India, Germany, UK in January and February 2012. We'll keep you up to date with her Fellowship in the Amplifier
Volunteer Profile
Jessica Chiu
Leeds, UK
What do you study?
Mechanical Engineering
Why Engineering?
I've always had a passion to discover how things work, how they fit together and how they can be modified or improved—so engineering was a perfect fit for me!
What have you done with Robogals?
Started the new Leeds chapter this year after going to the SINE training weekend in Manchester.
What was the biggest highlight?
Developing the Leeds chapter, which we are hoping to be massive! Meeting the other chapters in the UK and Ireland was definitely amazing too!
What are your dreams and goals for the future?
I would like to be a successful engineer, managing a project about energy and renewable resources, and work for a global company where I could travel and hopefully live in Canada!
What are your hobbies outside study and Robogals?
I like to go to the gym, running and keeping fit. I also like hiking, I'm just finishing my Duke of Edinburgh Award now. Also, I love baking and my girly sleepovers!
Partners
The Amplifier is the official newsletter of Robogals, collating articles written by our chapters all around the world for the benefit of Robogals members, supporting faculty, partners, sponsors and anyone else interested in following our activities.
Editor: Jia Choong
Typesetter: Hamish Graham
Enquiries: media@robogals.org
Website: www.robogals.org
Postal Address:
Robogals Global
PO Box 4435
Parkville VIC 3052
Australia
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