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UNSW SMaRT Centre Director, Professor Veena, features in an upcoming text book for NSW students.
SMaRT and Veena have this year been assisting the book contractor by contributing and reviewing content.
Today The Guardian Australia news outlet mentioned the upcoming text as part of a story they did following the release of a research paper highlighting a lack of female role models in school STEM texts.
Story excerpt: "Female scientists are almost entirely omitted from Australian curriculum, a new study has found, with researchers warning the “alarming” lack of representation could be contributing to the gender gap in the field of Stem.
"The study, published in the Australian Journal of Education on Monday, analysed the curriculum of the four year 11 and year 12 Stem subjects taught in Australian schools – biology, chemistry, physics and environmental science."
They story added "the New South Wales education department has included five women in its draft syllabus for year 7 to 10 students, including Marie Tharp, Henrietta Lacks, Vera Rubin, Veena Sahajwalla and Fiona Wood."
"A spokesperson for the NSW Education Standards Authority said it had been “conscious of the current inadequate representation of women” in drafting the syllabus and was “taking steps” to address it."