Before there is a pathway, there is usually a spark.

It might happen when a young person looks through a microscope for the first time, builds something that works, gets out on Country, sees a piece of technology in action, or meets someone doing a job they never knew existed. Sometimes the spark is nothing more than a question: How does that work? Can I have a go? Is that actually a job? Could I do that?

For those of us working with young people in STEM, those moments matter. But our role is about more than creating a moment of excitement. Our job is to help young people see where that spark could lead.

That is something I have thought about for a long time as a teacher, a parent and now in my role working in Pathways at DeadlyScience. As a teacher, I never wanted students simply to remember the content I gave them. Of course, knowledge matters, but education should also give young people the confidence and capability to ask questions, investigate, solve problems, follow their curiosity, find people who know more than they do, and take what they have learned somewhere new.

There is a big difference between giving someone an answer and giving them the knowledge, skills and tools to find answers for themselves.

We see that in the way knowledge is shared across generations. Where it is culturally appropriate for knowledge to be passed on, a knowledge holder does not simply hand a young person a jar of bush medicine and walk away. They might teach them how to identify the right plant, when it can be collected, who is permitted to collect it, how it is prepared, what it can be used for, what can be dangerous, and the responsibilities that come with holding that knowledge. The value is not only in the end product; it is in building knowledge, capability and responsibility so that, over time, the learner can carry that knowledge forward.

STEM learning can work in much the same way. We can put tools in young people’s hands, let them build, experiment, fail, investigate and problem-solve, and take them into workshops, laboratories, universities, workplaces and onto Country. We can give them opportunities to discover not only what STEM looks like, but what it feels like to participate in it.

And one of the most powerful things we can give them is access to people - our STEM Legends.

Scientists, engineers, tradies, technicians, health professionals, researchers, designers, coders, environmental scientists and people working in industries our young people may never have encountered before, can make something abstract suddenly feel real. A career description on a website can tell a student what an engineer does. Meeting an engineer who can say, “This is what I actually do, this is how I got here, and my pathway wasn’t always straightforward,” can do something very different.

Sometimes the thing that changes what a young person believes is possible, is not the equipment sitting in front of them. It is the person standing beside it.
That is a big part of what our STEM Legends can bring.

A STEM Legend does not need a perfect career story and they do not need to have followed a straight line from school to university to their current job. In fact, some of the most useful stories are probably the messy ones. Young people benefit from hearing about the unexpected opportunities, the changed plans, the mistakes, the people who helped along the way and the moments when someone else opened a door.

They also benefit from meeting people who are genuinely excited by what they do.

For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people, there is another important part to this conversation. STEM is not something foreign that our young people are being invited into for the first time. Our Peoples have observed, experimented, engineered, designed, navigated, managed Country, understood medicines, read seasons and skies, and developed sophisticated technologies and knowledge systems across generations.

So sometimes the spark is not discovering STEM for the first time. Sometimes it is recognising that what you already know, notice, question and do, has always been connected to STEM.

That is where pathways become important.

If something captures a young person’s imagination, what happens next? Who can they talk to? What subjects could they take? Is there an apprenticeship, TAFE course, university degree, work experience opportunity, community project or mentor that could help them explore it further? What does that job actually look like, and what might their next step be?

Because we can run the most exciting STEM experience imaginable and still miss an opportunity if a young person goes home inspired but has no idea what to do with that interest.

To me, that is what our Pathways work is really about. We are not there to decide that a young person should become an engineer, marine biologist, electrician, doctor or researcher. Our role is to give them information, knowledge, skills, tools, opportunities and people who can help them see what is possible, then give them the space to bring their own culture, identity, strengths, interests and aspirations to whatever comes next.

The point is not to choose their destination. It is to expand what they can see, from where they are currently standing.

A STEM Legend may spend only a short amount of time with a young person and never know exactly what came from that interaction. But perhaps that young person goes home and looks something up, chooses a STEM subject the following year, applies for work experience, asks another question, or starts to imagine themselves in a place they had never considered before.

That is how a spark starts to become a pathway.

And sometimes, all it takes is meeting the right person at the right time.

Do you work in STEM and want to share your story? Could you be one of our STEM Legends? Do you know someone who should be a STEM Legend?

Follow the link to our EOI and become a LEGEND today!