Eddy Le from Robogals with Southern River College’s Year 9 participants.
Camera IconEddy Le from Robogals with Southern River College’s Year 9 participants. Credit: Supplied/Supplied

Southern River College girls get robotics workshop to encourage STEM careers

Ben SmithComment News

SOME of Southern River College’s brightest girls have had the chance to engage their scientific side during a special robotics workshop.

Eleven Year 9 girls took part in a Robogals workshop, aimed at encouraging female students to take an interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects.

The workshop, run by volunteers Edward Le and Kevin Lu, taught participants about coding and programming by getting them to operate EV3 robots.

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Once they had mastered the basics, the students competed in a game by programming their robots to use sensors to stay on a table, whilst pushing surrounding robots off.

The school’s dean of studies Cheryl Andrade said it was important to encourage girls to pursue prospective careers linked to STEM subjects, given only 28 per cent of the STEM workforce were women.

“At Southern River College, our focus is on inspiring and encouraging young students to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM),” she said.

“In this program, we focused on talented female students, aiming to demystify the career opportunities available to young students who study these subjects.”

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