Breaking Barriers: Recognising Women's Impact in STEM on International Day of Women in STEM

On the 11th of February, GSCC celebrated the International Day of Women in STEM. This is a day when the scientific community recognises the role of Women in STEM fields and aims to address some of the barriers that have led to the lack of gender parity in STEM.

This is an initiative that has been gaining momentum at GSCC for a number of years, and this year it was bigger than ever. This year, students from Years 9 to 12 were lucky enough to receive a virtual keynote address from Lauren Cook, a research associate at the prestigious Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute. She inspired the students with her journey in the STEM field and spoke of her work with growing heart cells in a lab to combat Atrial Fibrillation.

After the keynote address, students learned about the Acid-Base chemistry of bath-bombs and made their own bath-bombs to take home. Students were able to experiment with scents, colours and dried flowers to make a personalised bath bomb to remember the day.

At lunch, the students participated in Jeopardy to test their knowledge of Women in STEM. We were lucky enough to be joined by Ms Cook and Mr Borg, who offered a unique perspective regarding their expertise in mathematics and technology, showing these programs' co-curricular support.

The Science department would like to extend its thanks to Lauren Cook and the team at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute for their time and expertise. We would also like to thank our laboratory technicians, Mrs Thomas and  Mrs Hart for their assistance and Mr Grana and Mr Vannan for their support.

“The keynote address was very interesting and extremely informative. She gave us advice about choosing a career in STEM and encouraged us to follow our passions when choosing a career. Overall it was a really fun day that opened my eyes to all the possibilities of having a career in STEM.” - Grace B, Year 9