Year 10 Work Experience

2024 Program streams

• Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences (SAFES)

  The School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences (SAFES) brings together a variety of discipline strengths and innovative solutions in ecosystem processes and management, food industries and systems, and agricultural practices and industry. This work experience opportunity covers an exciting mix of research covering topics that address a wide range of issues including climate change, food security, biodiversity conservation, sustainable forest management, invasive species, and environmentally and economically sustainable agricultural practices. Opportunities are available at the Parkville campus, as well as the schools’ other campus’ including Burnley, home of the urban horticulture and greening, Creswick, forests and fire, and Dookie, agriculture and land management across the themes of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystems. If you are keen on the environment, agriculture, and learning how research is making a difference to the ecosystems around us, then this could be the experience for you!

• Biosciences

  Research in the School of BioSciences is diverse and exciting. We use fundamental principles in ecology, evolution and genetics to understand how life on earth works, and to solve some of the most complex challenges humanity is facing. There is a broad range of techniques and questions that you’ll be able to learn about, such as how we can use evolution to control of invasive species, how ecology can be used by fisheries, the development of bioinspired materials to improve technologies and how animals can rapidly adapt to climate change. During your visit you will be able to interact with top researchers in these fields and be part of the process of doing science!

• Chemistry

  Chemistry is the study of matter – the structure, properties, and behaviour of everything that takes up space in the universe! If you choose to work in the School of Chemistry, you could be working in a lab investigating functional materials, biological chemistry or chemical biology, sustainability and the environment, and fundamental chemistry! Let us know which one you would be most interested in, and why!

• Engineering

  How did humans build sustainable and innovative communities that spread worldwide? Engineering includes the study of the natural environment, transport, machines, buildings, and even humans. It strives to improve the structures that society is established on in ways that benefit both humans and the planet.

• Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (SGEAS)

  People, Rocks, Fossils, Landscapes, Climate and Weather! We study Earth’s physical and chemical properties, fossils and the origins and history of life, the environmental and human effects of natural disasters, the distributions of minerals and resources needed to sustain our future planet, the dynamism of Indigenous cultures and landscapes, the drivers and trajectories of climate change, and the dynamics of human behaviour. This program will cover diverse topics, from earthquakes and volcanoes, to climate change, to engineering geology, to the diversity of human behaviours and cultures!

• Information Technology (IT)

  IT is a rapidly moving field that explores the way we manage and store data. The flow of information across the world has become crucial for businesses, governments, and individuals. It is expanding human society to an entirely different platform, as more of our world goes online.

• Mathematics and Statistics

  Originally, mathematicians engaged in pure mathematics – mathematics for its own sake, without having any application in mind. Today, however, almost all practical applications begin with mathematical foundations. Regarded as the root of all sciences, mathematics and statistics is essential to industry and research across many sectors such as healthcare, education, finance, energy, and supply chain. Mathematics and statistics also underpin the growing field of data science; they form the foundations for areas such as modelling, big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. We need mathematicians and statisticians, now more than ever, to tackle serious problems faced around the globe, concerning all facets of life at the microscale (e.g. bioinformatics) and macroscale (e.g. climate change).

• Physics

  Physics involves the study of everything in physical existence, from the smallest subatomic particles to the entire universe. If you choose to do work experience in Physics, you could work alongside astrophysicists investigating dark matter and new galaxies, or work in a lab developing methods to enable nanoscale imaging of biology and analysis of the inner composition of an atom.

• Science Gallery Melbourne (SGM)

  Science Gallery Melbourne (SGM) is a new space where science, art and technology collide, and young people are able to explore ideas and issues important to them. Part gallery, part museum and part experiment, Science Gallery exhibitions are developed with and for young people. Exhibition themes cut across STEM disciplines, and range from mental wellbeing, to swarming robotics, to dark matter. During your work experience, you will work with curators, learning programmers, exhibition designers and builders, and our in-house science communicators, Mediators, to gain insight into a variety of careers and learn how this transdisciplinary team works together to co-create future-focused exhibitions. It’s going to be a whole lot of fun!