Over 200 school children take part in group projects and interactive tours - <em>News</em>

Wednesday 5 March 2008
By Naomi Weston

Over 200 female school pupils aged 14 and 15 attended Science and Engineering Open Days last week at Imperial College London.

The two days aimed to encourage girls of this age group to choose studying science and engineering subjects at A level and later on at university.

Organised by the Women in SET (science, engineering and technology) student society, the Open Days included demonstrations, hands-on group projects and talks aimed at opening pupils’ eyes to the different aspects of science and what studying it can involve.

The two days commenced with an introduction to science and engineering at Imperial, followed by a hands-on group construction project to build model water towers with spaghetti and marshmellows to a specific design criteria. The models were then tested for their strength.

The two days aimed to encourage girls to choose studying science and engineering at A level and university

In the middle of the day there was a key note speech by Dr Colin Turnbull from the Department of Life Sciences who spoke about research into biofuels. He explained: “Biofuels research is of huge and immediate relevance, and scientists can contribute across the whole range of disciplines linking biology with chemistry and engineering, and with the environment and sustainability.”

He added: “These events are a great opportunity for high school students - and their teachers! - to hear about research on a big scale, to help them see future career possibilities before they make their critical A-level choices.”

Professor Maria Petrou, from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, who has a keen interest in the event and has been involved from the first year it ran, also gave a lecture, adapted to school children, on her research into image and signal processing for medical applications.

After lunch there were tours of the campus and departments including Chemistry, Physics, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Civil Engineering and Chemical Engineering. This involved laboratory tours and demonstrations.

Eirini Spentza, second year civil engineering PhD student, who is Chair of the Women in SET student society, explained: “This is the third year this event has run and this year we have worked closely with the Outreach Office to get more school children involved. So many schools responded that we have had to expand the scheme and hold two separate open days for the first time.”

To add to the day’s events, over 60 female Imperial student volunteers helped with the tours and activities whilst at the same time offered advice to the pupils. During the lunchtime break and at the end of the day there was a chance for volunteers to mingle with the school pupils for informal questions.

The two days also aimed to increase the awareness of science amongst Imperial’s female students. Eirini adds: “This is a great student to student networking opportunity for women from different departments to meet each other. The volunteers have also given the school pupils a student’s perspective on their specialist area.”

These open days follow on from a College-wide project for Women in SET, pioneered by Ms Alison Ahearn, Lecturer in Educational Development and Construction Law in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, to address the issue of female engineering and science graduates who complete their degrees and then do not go onto work in related professions.

The initiative aims to foster more student-led schemes such as these open days. Originally funded by the UK Resource Centre for Women in SET, the Faculties of Engineering and Natural Sciences now support the open days. Alison Ahearn says: “’By the students, for the students’, works brilliantly at Imperial. The Women in SET society exemplifies this. We admire them for creating a feasible, cost-effective scheme that benefits current and future students. Its ‘feel-good’ factor is superb.”

The Science Open Day took place on Wednesday 27 February and the Engineering day took place on Friday 29 February.

For more information please see: Women in SET society or contact Eirini on eirini.spentza@ic.ac.uk