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When it comes to robotics programs, Queensland’s Merrimac State High School touts one of the best in Australia.
At the World Robotics Summit in Tokyo last year, students, Melanie Hanson, Bradley Cornelius and Aaron Martin, won the Junior Category of the Skill Challenge, as well as the Open Demonstration category to take out overall first place.
Over time, the school’s strong focus on improving students’ STEM skills has also seen a growing number of females take up the popular robotics class, breaking the mould in what has traditionally been a male-dominated area.
Paul Gray, the school’s head of department in Mathematics, believes the lack of female participation in STEM is largely due to ingrained gender stereotypes and a lack of female role models.
Gray said the school is helping to address this issue in its classrooms by strategically allocating its “amazing” female teachers in the early years of high school, when students are most likely to make an emotional connection with their teachers.
“Consequently, these students tend to follow those teachers into the more academically demanding courses in the senior years,” Gray told The Educator.
“In addition to this we have, for many years, encouraged and supported girls to study high levels of mathematics and science to enhance their potential career paths.”
And it’s not only the female teachers that are having an impact on the participation of females in Mathematics and Science, says Gray.
“A team of dedicated staff who individualise learning, differentiate tasks and are emotionally intelligent to the needs of their students, both male and female, is paramount,” he said.
“We have worked on this aspect of our practice and the hard work and dedication of our staff is now paying dividends.”
Gray added that the school has also developed its reach into its feeder primary schools, adding that many of the student mentors it uses for these programs are female.
“We then invite students into the high school for STEAM challenge days and de-mystify the transition to high school and encourage participation in science, mathematics and STEAM challenges,” he said.
From strength to strength
Gray said the upward trend in female participation in robotics was first seen in the school’s senior mathematics classes, with a concerted effort to increase participation of females, particularly in Mathematics C.
“In five years, we have been able to move the female participation rate from 0% to 50%. This increase naturally saw an increased female participation in Mathematics B,” he said.
“We strongly involve our Alumni, who are now out in industry in a varied range of professions or studies. This mentorship is highly valued by all our students. Several alumni are travelling to Japan to support our competing teams.”
Gray also acknowledged the “incredible staff” at the school who he said excite, encourage and engage students as “a fundamental contributor” to the increased participation rates of female students in science, mathematics and STEAM.
“Ultimately it is the learning experience and the learning environment that will turn students on or off a subject. My staff have worked incredibly hard on their pedagogy to ensure that students have an experience that excites them,” Gray said.
‘An amazing opportunity’
In October, Merrimac’s robotics team is headed to Tokyo to defend their hard-earned World Robot Summit title.
“I never thought I’d like robotics at all, but I love it so much,” said student Maya.
Another student, Andre, said he was “nervous but excited” to be travelling to Japan to compete.
“It is an amazing opportunity that my team has, and we hope to bring home the trophies again,” he told The Educator.
His teammate, Andrew, said it was “super exciting but daunting” to be going head-to-head with the best robotics team in the world.
“Also, just to go and immerse yourself in a different culture is pretty amazing,” he said.
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