The fourth Skirting Science took place at HansPriceAcademy on Friday 13 July 2012. It was attended by Year 9 girls from schools across North Somerset, Somerset and Bristol.
Dr Sarah Beck from the University of Birmingham gave the opening speech. Sarah talked about her research on child development and her route into this fascinating area. The girls were interested to learn that by some measures crows are more intelligent than six-year-olds! Sarah’s main message to the girls was to keep their options open and not to worry if they haven’t yet made up their mind about their future career.
The girls got to choose from 16 interactive and engaging workshops, all delivered by science professionals. Click here to see workshop descriptions and photos.
Skirting Science is characterised by the buzz of learning about science and science careers. This event was no exception. It was clear from the animated conversations at lunch and between workshops that the girls were having a good time finding out new and unexpected things. This impression was reinforced by the excellent feedback we recieved from the girls, teachers and workshop presenters. The comments below are typical:
‘Skirting Science has taught me about science in a fun and interesting way. I now want to have a career in science because I know more about it and I am more interested in it.’
‘Skirting Science showed me that women have equal contributions to make to science as men do.’
‘I now think science has a lot more to do with day-to-day life than I used to think.’
‘To see that science is involved in a lot of careers makes me see that it is a lot more important than I originally thought.’
‘Skirting Science has shown me that science careers have women in them. I now know I could have a job in science when I’m older.’
‘Skirting Science has been useful because it showed me what you can get out of having science qualifications.’
‘Skirting Science changed my attitude towards science because it can be fun and there are a lot of jobs available to do with science.’
The organisers would like to say big thank you to everyone who gave up their time to make Skirting Science 2012 so special. In particular we would like to say thank you to all of the workshop presenters, staff and students at HansPriceAcademy, and all of the Soroptimist International volunteers.
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