Work experience

[Music plays and image appears of an aerial view of Tennant Creek and then the camera zooms in on a rock formation on the ground and then the camera zooms out to show a car driving past the rocks]

 

[Image changes to show three female students walking past the Tennant Creek High School sign and then the image shows a rear view of the three students walking towards the school building]

 

Sharon Kurniawan: In the virtual work experience programme we were looking at medical image processing using Anaconda and Python and Jupiter Notebook and things like that.

 

[Images move through of two students working on a computer together, a close-up view of the computer screen, and then Chin Huan talking to the camera and text appears: Chin Huan, Science & Mathematics Teacher, Tennant Creek High School]

 

Chin Huan: Our kids are given the opportunities just as any other kids across Australia, regardless of whether you are from the city or from a remote town like Tennant Creek.

 

[Images move through of the students entering a room and then working on the computer]

 

Robelyn-Joy Lanas: The main things that we’ve learned during the week was like different types of playing the basics of Python.

 

[Image changes to show three of the students around a computer in a room]

 

I also got to work with the people in CSIRO.

 

[Image changes to show Robelyn-Joy sitting in a chair on a verandah talking to the camera and text appears: Robelyn-Joy Lanas, Tennant Hills High School]

 

I mean it was very fun. It was really interesting.

 

[Images move through to show Rob Hollow walking down a corridor, entering a room, talking to the camera, sitting in a chair talking, and then working on a computer and text appears: Rob Hollow, Education & Science Outreach Specialist, Astronomy and Space Science, CSIRO]

 

Rob Hollow: The virtual work experience programme is a really exciting concept that allows students in regional and remote areas access to a really worthwhile and engaging experience around future career paths without physically having to come into a city or a headquarters like us here in Sydney.

 

[Image changes to show a goat grazing outside a house, and then the image changes to show a sign on the house wall which reads “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow]

 

Kate Barrett: I learned a lot about pulsars because I didn’t know heaps about them.

 

[Image changes to show a rear view of Kate working on a laptop, and then images move through of the laptop screen she is working on, and then Kate talking to the camera and text appears: Kate Barrett, Brisbane School of Distance Education]

 

We looked at pulsars in binary systems, so all the different ways that they can interact with other stars and we looked at how they’re formed. I learned a bit about scale.

 

[Image changes to show a rear view of Kate working at her laptop]

 

I thought that there’d be a lot sort of within a 100 light years but they’re very spread out.

 

[Image changes to show Luke looking at Rob Hollow talking on the laptop screen]

 

Luke Bosnic: Right now, when you’re in school you don’t really get to choose where you live.

 

[Image changes to show a close view of Luke’s face as he works on the laptop and then the camera zooms in on Rob Hollow talking on the laptop screen]

 

You just have to, you know, you live where your parents live. It’s not like I could just buy a house in the city and live there.

 

[Image changes to show Luke sitting in a chair and talking to the camera and then the image changes to show a side facing view of Luke talking and text appears: Luke Bosnic, Peninsular Grammar]

 

So, it would be really unfair. Everyone should have the same opportunities.

 

[Image changes to show Sophie Hawke talking to the camera and text appears: Sophie Hawke, Tennant Creek High School]

 

Sophie Hawke: We did have a lot of connection errors.

 

[Image changes to show Kaitlyn Fraser sitting on a bench talking to the camera and text appears: Kaitlyn Fraser, Tennant Creek High School]

 

Kaitlyn Fraser: Sometimes we would have problems with the Wi-Fi or connection but…

 

[Image changes to show Sharon sitting in a chair in a classroom talking to the camera and text appears: Sharon Kurniawan, Tennant Creek High School]

 

Sharon Kurniawan: You can’t really do anything about it and like you have to work with what you’ve got.

 

[Image changes to show Rob working on a computer and then the image changes to show a close view of Rob talking to the camera and then the camera zooms out on Rob talking]

 

Rob Hollow: Students in these regional remote areas, you know they might be in a very small school, they might be in a central school where there’s only a handful of students in their year level.

 

[Camera zooms in on Rob talking and then the image changes to show a profile view of Luke and then the image changes to show Rob sitting in a chair talking to the camera]

 

By having a virtual experience like this where they can come online, interact with other keen students from other, other areas, it provides an opportunity that otherwise they’re denied.

 

[Image changes to show Dr Susmita Saha sitting in a chair talking to the camera and text appears: Dr Susmita Saha, Postdoctoral Fellow, Australian e-Health Research Centre, CSIRO]

 

Dr Susmita Saha: It was really encouraging for us to know that such remote schools are really interested about STEM.

 

[Image changes to show Sophie and Robelyn-Joy talking and smiling and then the image changes to show Susmita talking on the screen]

 

The students actually showed a great level of enthusiasm but I should say that I enjoyed that too.

 

[Image changes to show Susmita talking to the camera]

 

So, that was actually encouraging both ways.

[Music plays and the CSIRO logo and text appears on a blue screen: CSIRO, Australia’s innovation catalyst]