Mia Krongold, 2023 STEM Captain

Historically a male-dominated field, nowadays it is more important than ever to immerse young women in the world of STEM.

While there are now more women pursuing STEM careers than ever before, I aspire to further minimise gender disproportion. By encouraging girls to participate in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics from the early years of adolescence, they are able to navigate through a broader range of challenges, developing a skillset in critical thinking, mechanics and fun hands-on activities. Fostering such capabilities opens up an entirely new world of career opportunities for young women.

In STEM Club, the girls tested their science knowledge with trivia, teaching the girls new fun facts and events in the STEM community. Following this, we have built miniature, rubber-band powered cars, with the girls eager to see who could build the fastest vehicle and win the race. This car activity required patience, taking problem solving skills to the next level with ambiguous instructions and fiddly materials. However, I’m pleased to report that all of the girls were successful in building their cars. In addition, we also had an exciting Astronomy Night where the girls viewed the beauty of space in high definition, through our brand-new Dobsonian telescopes, learning about stars and planets.

My favourite part of being STEM Captain was connecting with girls in different Year levels. Not only are we able to bond in our common passion for STEM, but we are also able to share experiences at St Catherine’s and learn from each other.