During the last week of the January school holidays, we had the opportunity to attend the ConocoPhillips ‘Science Experience’ at the University of Queensland. We both had a great time!

Over the course of three days, we participated in a variety of workshops in different areas of the university, including chemical engineering, microbiology and palaeontology. The workshops covered a number of STEM subjects, and it was really eye-opening to see how many opportunities and career pathways there are in science. We also listened to a number of lectures and it was great to see such passionate people who are lecturers at the university. It was also really good to just have a look around the university and get an idea of what it would be like to be a student there.

The camp was led by the YSA (Young Scientists of Australia) “staffies” who were really friendly and made sure that we all had a great time. It was a lot of fun and we got to meet lots of new people and make some really good friends. One highlight was the “innovation challenge” where it was competition between teams to come up with a successful company and product within a set time limit.

On the final day of the camp, there was a closing ceremony and we got to hear a really good guest speaker. She was very inspiring and had a really interesting story of how she got to where she is now with a career in Venomology.

Overall, we had a wonderful time and learnt so much about science, possible careers and university in general; it was definitely an experience we are glad to have had.

We would highly recommend this ‘Science Experience’ to any interested Year 9 Science students.

Madeleine Roulston and Ellena Jimenez