Last Friday, 20 Year 9 girls took part in an inspiring Engineering for Girls excursion to Curtin University, where they explored hands-on activities and learned about real-world engineering pathways. The day included workshops in biomedical and mining engineering, followed by a panel discussion with female engineers who shared their experiences, career journeys and advice.

To give a sense of the experience from a student’s point of view, here is a reflection from one of our participants:

“We started off the programme by grouping ourselves into separate teams to make prosthetic legs, as an introduction to biomedical engineering. Using the provided materials, we raced against each other, getting our prosthetics tested by distance and comfort. We found the activity to be fun and challenging, especially trying to make it work effectively without hurting anyone. We became sympathetic and understanding to those without a leg after we struggled horribly at walking with the one we made.

We had a lot of fun with the mining activity, having to crush up Marie biscuits and choc chip cookies to create various types of overloads, lumps and fines. It was an amazing experience to mimic the mining process, we even got to sneak a few cookies for ourselves! We hung out in hammocks together on our lunch break eating chips and milkshakes. We had two guest speakers: Professor Kate Brooks, Head of Electrical Engineering at Curtin University and a representative from Engineering Australia talk to us about their career.

During the panel discussion, we met various engineers such as a controls engineer and a civil engineer. They answered our burning questions such as why they got into engineering and their experiences along the way. Overall, we dove deeper into the personal lives of engineers.” Kaitlin Soh – Year 9 Student

Conclusively, all 20 girls enjoyed participating in this programme and hope that future students make the most of it too.

Ms Jenna Ng
Teacher