IMPACT
Girls in Physics Breakfast Program.
Vicphysics Teachers’ Network
The Girls in Physics Breakfasts Program is a series of events held in metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria. At each Breakfast, students from Years 10 to 12 share a table with two or three women who have a career in Physics or Engineering or are currently studying those areas at University. Each event includes a guest speaker sharing her research with the group. After the talk there is a Q&A session, followed by several careers-based activities.
The program is delivered each year in Central Melbourne and at Monash University. The regional venues include Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Mildura, Wodonga and Traralgon.
At the tables, the students can ask questions about the women scientists’ work and job responsibilities, how they entered their industry, and what studying the physical sciences and engineering at university is like.
The speakers are high-profile women drawn from universities and industry around Australia. The venues and speakers at the Breakfasts over recent years can be accessed on the Vicphysics website at this webpage: Girls in Physics Breakfasts: An Invitation (vicphysics.org)
The activities include:
– A quiz for the students to identify their personal attributes in How I work, How I think and How I am with others,
– The responses to the quiz indicate preferences for different styles of jobs in STEM. The students are provided with information about each of the 12 styles, such as explorer, communicator, entrepreneur, etc. The information includes many examples of jobs and places where people with these attributes work.
– The last activity includes examining case studies of women with careers in STEM who have done the quiz and identified their preferred styles. The students can read about women with styles similar to their own.
The program seeks to engage as many schools as possible; as such, there is a limit on the number of students from each school. The events are usually held in Terms 1 and 2 to provide students with information when considering course selection for the following year.
The program has also developed a website to complement the program.
