Thursday was a special day for the Technische Universität Hamburg-Harburg (TUHH, Hamburg-Harburg University of Technology) and the Part-Time Scientists. It was Girls’Day [german].
Karsten, our Electronics Team Lead at the TUHH gave a brief talk about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and our rover. After that, the interested girls had a chance to drive a moon rover prototype around. Like at several of our previous events, girls are much less shy and disinterested than the clichés have it. Karsten says:
“In talks at co-ed classes it’s usually the majority of the guys that is interested. However, at this Girls’ Day one can see that the girls are just as interested and want to drive the rover prototype as much as the boys. They just need to be given a chance to interact with it on their own terms apart from the guys and shed their shyness of technology.”
The Girls’ Day has its roots in the American "Take-Our-Daughters-To-Work-Day,” in which school-aged daughters would visit the workplaces of their parents. This tradition came to Germany in 2001, albeit somewhat modified. Unlike the American original, the German Girls’ Day is more about technical and engineering jobs, but it usually also takes place each year on the fourth Thursday in April. This year it was held early to avoid the students’ Easter break. Girls’ Day isn’t held only in Germany; nearly all of Europe has similar initiatives. The goal of the initiatives is to enhance the education of the young female generation and generate interest in technical university education, esp. in the STEM fields.
The Part-Time Scientists are always very engaged in STEM education and getting women into technical fields. STEM fields are key expertise for Germany’s economy, and the Part-Time Scientists’ mission of space exploration. Also, there are still too few women in technical or engineering professions. Among the Part-Time Scientists team women are highly underrepresented, yet we hope to be able to shift this in the future. For now, Karsten is pleased that he could interest so many girls in technology and hopes that, in the future, of the 5700 students at TUHH more than 24% will be female.
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