Tech for Girls!
This year, Femion, the women+ committee of the Society for Engineering Physics, organized an engineering afternoon for girls+ for the first time with the help of FAST. The purpose of this afternoon was to allow girls+, who have reached the end of elementary school, to experience a fun afternoon full of technical challenges. A group of 50 girls+ gained different experiences through three components. For example, during a workshop they were allowed to decorate an air pressure rocket themselves and shoot it with a bicycle pump. This was a great success despite the strong wind, which sometimes caused the rockets to take unexpected paths, which in turn led to great fun for the participants. In addition, the participants were invited to come and watch a number of interactive demos highlighting various physical phenomena. This led to great amazement among the participants where different theories were invented to arrive at an explanation. Finally, participants were allowed to venture into a selection of experiments themselves. The highlight of many was the 3D printing pen that allowed participants to build their own structures.
Participants could also build their own circuits, test an old-fashioned tin telephone and much more. At the end of the day a central conclusion took place where every participant received a nice goodie bag. This goodie bag contained another nerve game that can be built yourself including instruction card, a manual for a test to do at home and a tasty fruit. The purpose of the goodie bag is to encourage participants to continue working with technology at home. All in all, it was a very successful day according to both participants and facilitators. The success of this first edition bodes well for next year!
