Students go Beyond the Beaker

An interactive Scitech program that encourages young people to broaden their understanding of the role science, technology, engineering and maths play in everyday life recently toured West Pilbara schools.

In the Beyond the Beaker initiative, students at Onslow Primary School, St Luke’s College, Karratha Senior High School and Roebourne District High School used scientific problem-solving to make everyday decisions such as the best way to dye their hair or best food to eat.

Scitech careers co-ordinator Colleen Kleinschmidt said Beyond the Beaker was no ordinary career talk but instead aimed to give young people a deeper appreciation of how STEM fundamentals worked in general life.

“It’s less about specific careers, more about the skills you get when you study science and maths,” she said.

“Some people think of science as a body of knowledge that you have to memorise, you have to know things. In fact science is a verb, it’s a process. You ask a question, you make a prediction, you try something out and see what happens. It’s figuring out how the world works. And anyone can do that.

“We don’t know what jobs will be available for students in five to 10 years time because technology changes the way we work... but we do know that if you have great skills in science and technology, you’re in a good place to get a great career.”

Ms Kleinschmidt said Pilbara students had been “super-engaged” in the talks.

Chevron social performance manager Luke Blackbourn said the company was committed to supporting the STEM initiative.

“We are proud to say that Beyond the Beaker now reaches over 10,000 Western Australian students each year to foster a love and passion for science,” he said.