This Month Sydney teenager Manjekah Dunn will be representing Australia in the Science and Mathematics Olympiad as part of a 23 person strong team. Apart from beating out 25,000 other candidates to compete in the toughest science and mathematics competitions, drawing 2000 of the brightest students from around the world, she also hopes to study medicine and neurology in the future.
Australia’s biology team will compete in Bali, the chemistry competition will take place in Hanoi and Kazakhstan will host the physics competition.
Manjekah, who is also studying chemistry for her Higher School Certificate, said she was not concerned about being the only female on the team. ‘I see everyone as my friends and we are all the same,’’ Manjekah said. But she worries science is too male-dominated. ‘I hope I can inspire more females into science,’’ the Baulkham Hills High student said.
Since 2004, 130 Australian students have competed in the science Olympiad. Only 32 of those have been female.
The chairwoman of Australian Science Innovations Gunilla Burrowes said science and maths still battled a perception problem, and many young women consider science as a study option for males.
We believe that more needs to be done to inspire children but especially women into science careers or at least to appreciate how science works and that it is not just “a man’s game”. Popularizing science to the younger generations needs to take a multi-faceted approach by making young and engaging modern content, better educating parents so they can communicate to their children about science, having inspiring and up to date scientific content in schools and encouraging famous people and scientists to do more in the communication of science.
Science as a whole is making great strides in this direction with the likes of Fiona Stanley, Natalie Portman, Neil Degrasse Tyson, Derrek Muller, Hank Green, Michio Kaku and the list is continues but without the support of media corporations, governments and investors we can only get so far.
In regards to women & girls specifically we need to do something about our society’s obsession with “pinkification” of girl’s toys and hobbies. We need toy companies, game developers and schools to push positive, smart and inspiring toys / hobbies for young girls as an option that will inspire science, maths and critical thinking from a young age.
We also need to listen to the kids and take an interest in their culture in order to communicate science effectively to them as if we continue with the current ridged and outdated models of science education we will only continue to get a handful of interested kids instead of a scientific revolution.
This may sound like a huge cost to governments and parents alike but when you consider that math and science has driven the world’s prosperity for the last 200 years you can see that investment is well worth our time and money.
The University of Sydney’s maths and science ambassador Adam Spencer will present the Australian students with their team blazers at a function at Parliament House in Canberra on Monday.
Stay Curious – C.Costigan
