I have been interested in science since I was young. Like many kids, I was obsessed with volcanoes, earthquakes and the layers of the Earth when I first learned about them. One of my favourite books when I was young was all about the planets and a kid who travels into the great red spot on Jupiter.

It was in high school when I really started to love chemistry in particular. It helped that my chemistry teacher was my favourite (and also my homeroom) teacher. What I really loved about chemistry, and still do, is that it can explain so much about the world. Chemistry is also beautiful and fun; full of bright colours and shining crystals and exciting experiments. I also took maths, biology, English and international studies in VCE.

When I left high school I studied Arts/Science at the University of Melbourne. Because I wanted to know EVERYTHING about the world, I studied philosophy and politics as well as chemistry and Earth science. In the end, I decided that science was for me, and I finished my science degree, but discontinued Arts. The Arts subjects I took were still worthwhile though, and I don’t regret having taken them. Uni wasn’t always easy. I took (and in one or two cases dropped or failed) subjects that I didn’t like or those that were really challenging. In the end though, I found my passion, got my bachelor’s degree and enrolled in master’s, and then PhD. In my postgraduate studies I specialised in ‘Supramolecular Chemistry’. Basically, I learned how to get molecules to assemble together like pieces of Lego to form ‘molecular cages’. The cages were big enough to trap small molecules inside, and their purpose was to capture environmental pollutants. I studied the cages by forming crystals of them, shining x-rays on the crystals and analysing the x-ray patterns.

Science research can be so rewarding. It still amazes me to think that I have synthesised molecules that no-one else on Earth has EVER made before and that have possibly never existed anywhere in the universe! Becoming a science researcher also allowed me to travel to France, New Zealand and around Australia to present my research and learn from others in my field. I also got to spend some time in Germany working with a collaborator who was studying my cages. As well as being rewarding, research can be challenging. I did thousands of experiments during my PhD and most of them failed! My PhD really showed me the value of failure, how to be persistent and how to strategise.

Another challenge is that it can be difficult to get a long-term role in research because it is quite competitive. However, there are so many other opportunities that arise from studying science, because it does teach you so many transferable skills. I think my most valuable skills gained from studying science are problem solving, being able to communicate my ideas to different audiences, collaboration, planning and being able to better interpret and evaluate the data and arguments we see in the news and social media.

After teaching chemistry at University for a while, I got a job at the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). My job is to develop science and reasoning assessments and to do research in STEM education. My favourite parts of my job are:

• working on the STEM video game challenge, the International Mathematical Modelling Challenge (IM²C) and the Big Science competition
• travelling around Australia and the world to teach people how to develop high quality international science assessments
• doing educational research and publishing research papers
• developing interactive modules to see how kids can learn to use new digital tools
• working with kids in schools to see how we can improve our assessments for them.

Although Jess and sister Alana are both in STEM, they both got there through very different pathways and there is a lot of merit in that itself.

During different points of Jess’s academic career and during Covid, her advice for others is to form strong relationships with people around you in your course, or with others who have been to University before in your family. Even just feeling supported is helpful because if you feel stuck you can talk to someone that understands.

STEM has really taught Jess some life skills using the skills in STEM. STEM hasn’t just been about learning Chemistry. Supramolecular Chemistry is really niche and it’s not something you can go and use in everyday life, and Jess doesn’t even use this in her job, she uses her transferable skills and the basics of chemistry that she learnt when she was an undergrad.

There are these cross cutting skills in STEM that really apply to lots of different industries and even in life. For example, finding evidence and interpreting different sources of evidence for their reliability and validity. Using mathematical and scientific thinking helps you make decisions in your everyday life by teaching you how to better understand risks and rewards, break problems/tasks down into steps and in so many more ways.

One area Jess is really passionate about is getting young people into STEM in a capacity that is exciting for them and even for kids that do not want to pursue it as a career. Giving them the opportunity to learn some of the transferable skills and to also feel like they have capability in this area because a lot of kids shy away from technology and maths because they just don't have the self efficacy. ACER runs the STEM video game challenge and Jess has been a judge and helps choose the theme every year. Research has started on how to get under-represented demographics more involved in the STEM video game challenge. The awesome thing about it is that it is free as well. There are even resources for teachers to help guide students at different year levels as there are different coding platforms available and this is even available for Primary School kids.

STEM can provide some really awesome opportunities to do things that you never thought you would do. One of these opportunities presented itself in a three day trip to Paris to meet the team as they have a client in Paris who they are designing a new International Assessment for. This project is based around Digital Literacy. Jess then went on to Vienna to do some workshops with international participants for another part of the project. Three days of training in Vienna was provided for people who have been contributing on this project that don’t usually work in assessments.

Improving education is what Jess is really passionate about. Being on the ground, training people, and meeting people from all over the world and then also contributing to international research. Seeing what kids around the world can do and how we can use that information to improve education around the world including in developing economies.