How STEM Subjects Helped Alana Discover Her Passion and Understand Coronavirus

"My critical thinking and problem solving has really improved."

This post is presented in partnership with the WA Government.

When Warwick Senior High School student and young Noongar woman Alana Dooley decided to give STEM subjects a crack, she was nervous, worried that they’d be too hard for her.

Turns out the reputation wasn’t quite right. Last year she went on to win CSIRO's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Secondary Student STEM Achievement Award, and now she has a clear path to a number of different careers (with high employability) of her choosing.

"I love [the subjects] and I’m really motivated because it’s helping me get to where I want to go in the future," Alana tells Student Edge.

Alana, who is in Year 12, has taken on maths methods, human biology and physics to achieve her dream of working in science communication and astronomy.

"I’ve applied for a double major in Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts. I’m hoping, fingers crossed, that [once] I have that finished, I’ll be working in science communication and using the skills from both the science and the arts to communicate scientific ideas to the broader community," she explains.

"This includes speaking to students and explaining ideas that they might find really complex or hard to wrap their heads around, but making them easy to understand and inspiring them to know that they can go on and study these things as well if that’s what they want to do."

Alana describes STEM subjects as "really hands on" and enjoys that everything she is learning can be applied to the real world and her everyday life.

"Last year in physics we were learning about radiation and that was when the Chernobyl TV series came out and we were like 'Woah we kind of understand what’s going on,'" she says.

"It’s really interesting, in human bio just last term we were studying about immunity and everything that we were learning about was directly related to coronavirus. It kind of felt like we had this special understanding and it was really cool. Everything could be applied to the real world.

"Because it’s so relevant it doesn’t feel like a chore to learn it, it’s really interesting to learn and it's fun."

Alana has also found that STEM has allowed her to strengthen her critical thinking and apply those skills to all elements of her life.

"My critical thinking and problem solving has really improved," she says.

"If you’re in a situation and you’re not really sure how to approach something, those problem solving skills that you learn in STEM are really important."

Even though STEM subjects sometimes get a bad rep for being too hard, Alana encourages using your learning strengths to find what works for you, and getting advice from the people around you.

"I’m definitely someone who needs to talk about what I’ve learned, so I can’t just sit down, read a book and then understand it. I find that I really need to discuss what I’ve learned," she explains.

"If you can, speak to older students that have taken the subjects to get their advice and put you at ease a little bit.

"If you’re even on the fence about taking STEM subjects, I’d just say take them anyway because they’re so interesting and you learn so much."

No matter what you want to do in the future, you will need STEM skills. STEM skills like problem solving, critical thinking, and working in a team are critical for jobs of the future. They can help you to design and use new technologies, solve important problems, help people, make a difference to society and protect our environment.

The Take 2 STEM campaign is about educating the community on the importance of STEM skills to ensure that all Western Australians are well-placed to take up new and emerging jobs. Follow the link for more great stories and all the information you need to get started in STEM.

This article was originally published on 9 July 2020.

Header Image: Take 2 STEM