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Rock
Stars or Young Scientists???
Rose Borella
Marketing and Media, Deakin Science and Technology
Deakin University [Geelong campus] Australia
On
Wednesday 12 April, I saw amazing scenes
in Albury, NSW, when young Deakin University scientists
were mobbed for autographs, getting treatment more
like rock stars or sporting heroes.
The young science stars were visiting Albury-Wodonga on the
first leg of the Sciences Live Tour,
an event series sponsored by Deakin University, and run in
partnership with the Australian Broadcasting Commission's
Science Unit.
The Tour aimed to give secondary students in Years
9 to 12 a glimpse into the private lives and public
triumphs of some young guns in science, engineering, and technology.
By peeking inside the lives of the intelligent and famous,
the Sciences Live Tour aimed to encourage and inspire
more secondary students to consider university studies in
science and technology.
The first leg of the Sciences Live Tour played to
600 secondary students in Shepparton and
Albury-Wodonga on 11 and 12 April 2006, and ended with legions
of young fans queuing to ask questions and get autographs
from their new idols.
The Tourists doing the first two gigs were Dr Bronwyn Fox,
talking nanotechnology, identical twins and
mechanical engineering students, Darren and
Cameron Lee, doctoral students Sophie Lee, doing multimedia
and games design, and Rebecca Waite, in forensics,
who last year dabbled in decomposing pigs' carcases
and maggot breeding.
I work in marketing and media for Deakin University's Faculty
of Science and Technology. I was Deakin's organiser of the
Sciences Live Tour, working with my ABC colleague, Frankie
Lee. I am a journalist by training, and my
role is all about science communication. I don't have a qualification
in sciences, but there are many good science communicators
who do.
I did maths and sciences to
the end of Year 11, but
not in Year 12. I loved writing and animals,
and still do. I found chemistry really interesting.
Had I known you could do it as a university degree, I'm pretty
sure I would have done zoology.
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