Eight secondary school students, from years 10-11, travelled to UQ to participate in the School of Mathematics and Physics Astrophysics Work Experience Program on 15-19 September 2025.
While at UQ, the students were given lab tours, where they saw cutting-edge research, attended a 2nd year “Space Science and Stellar Astrophysics” lecture, and had the opportunity to speak with professional and academic staff about prospective career pathways in Astrophysics.
SMP Physics Teaching Laboratory Coordinator, Dr Gil Toombes gave the students a tour of the Physics Teaching Laboratories, and a “Stellar Spectral Fingerprints” practical workshop, constructing their own telescopes and spectroscopes.
The UQ Science Demo Troupe ran a session with the students, where they looked at Gravitational lensing, Bernoulli's Principle, gyroscopic motion, topology, and spectral lines to investigate properties used in space exploration and investigation.
During the work experience program, the students also engaged in independent project work, investigating the discoveries made by three of the most prominent cosmologists of the 20th century, who made discoveries pivotal to the understanding of modern cosmology. The students presented their research projects to the Astrophysics group at the end of the week, to showcase what they learned in the program and illustrated the hard work they contributed to their individual projects.
The Astrophysics Work Experience Program provided students a glimpse into the world of Astrophysics, and helped them develop valuable knowledge and skills that will be useful in their future studies in Science.
