My experience with Greenlight for Girls at Imperial College

Imperial College hosted a greenlight for girls day on Saturday 26th September. Greenlight for girls is an international organisation that works to keep girls of all ages engaged in STEM in the hope that they will pursue a career in it in the future. Greenlight for girls day at Imperial College involved getting hundreds of girls in one place and allowing them to participate in a variety of STEM related activities.

The event at Imperial College went under the hashtag #g4gImperial, so check out all the tweets particularly from @WiP_IC where I tried to tweet as much as possible in order to capture the excitement of the day! Also check out the Women in Physics IC Facebook page for more pictures and videos here. 

The day began with sorting out the volunteer t-shirts and ensuring all volunteers knew what they were doing. It was so lovely to see so many volunteers giving up their precious time to participate in an event for a good cause. Volunteers were from all sorts of backgrounds: chemists, biologists, physicists. And even came in all ages: some were in the working world, others were undergraduates and some postgraduates. I had a great time working with such a diverse group of people and getting to know about what other STEMists do - it was definitely an eye-opening experience since there is very little overlap with the other sciences as an undergraduate.

Our volunteer t-shirts were on and it was time to welcome the 200 girls that were going to become STEMists for the day! The queue of girls coming in seemed endless it trailed all the way from the second floor up up the stairs and to the registration desk on level 3! Absolutely wonderful to see!

After registration the girls had a blast decorating their own lab coats and taking amazing pictures in the Photo Booth! I saw some wonderful designs on the lab coats, including planets, water molecules, physics equations and phrases like 'I <3 Science'. I even saw some references to fusion! Awesomeness!

Breakfast is served - just waiting for the 200 girls to arrive

Loving these posters!

Decorating lab coats!

I've never seen the Blackett Level 2 foyer so full!

Photo Booth awesomeness!

The girls then had their first talk of the day where the founder of Greenlight for girls spoke about the organisation and told the girls to have FUN! Jess Wade, my biggest inspiration at Imperial College also spoke out about her journey to her position now at Imperial College and gave the girls the best introduction to Imperial College! After a small safety talk the volunteers had a small briefing on how to look after our groups, what to do in case of an emergency and other safety related issues. We had a small chance to mingle and I found some fellow physicists. :) I took this opportunity to learn more about them and the work they were doing. If there is one piece of advice I would give it would be to participate in lots of events and get to know as many people as you can - you never know you could find your future employer through the people you meet!

So many buzzing young STEMists in one room!

Founder of Greenlight for girls giving an introductory talk

Jess Wade being awesome as usual!

Shortly after, I was assigned my group of nine girls and quickly introduced myself and asked if any of the girls had met each other before. Most had either come on their own or had another friend with them. So I tried to break the ice and make conversation where I endeavoured to involve everyone. Their first activity was with the women from the Oxford Women in Physics Society - definitely my cup of tea! The session involved getting the girls up to date with what accelerators were, how they work, and giving them a chance to demonstrate the collision of particles in the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) with large beach balls! Along the way the girls had lots of fun doing cool tricks with a Van de Graaff generator, including showering the room with confetti and mini-pie tins. The Oxford Women in Physics were super enthusiastic and this rubbed off on the girls - it was very nice to see other women who also have a passion for physics!

Look at those smiles - FUN with Physics! Thanks Oxford Women in Physics for the great session. 

The next session involved making dye-sensitised solar cells (which was my fist year project so I could help the girls with the session). This is essentially making a solar cell using fruit with a particular dye - the natural process of photosynthesis is utilised in the solar cell to convert light energy into electrical energy with the help of titanium dioxide. Some of the girls had never seen a multimeter before and some had never done an experiment in school so having this day was extremely valuable for them and is exactly why I set up my own Science Club at my old school and why I try and participate in as much Outreach as possible.

Having fun making raspberry solar cells

Cleaning of the raspberry 

Our stomachs were rumbling and so that only meant one thing: LUNCH! I took my lovely group of girls to get their lunch packs and we made our way over to the Queen's Lawn where we sat on the grass and had some great time to get some food in our systems and to know each other. All the girls were super lovely and some were already thinking about careers in STEM. It was an honour to act as a female role model for the girls and I told them about the shortage of STEMists and how female physicists are even more rare! I gave the girls the advice that was given to me when I was at school and that was to always keep your options open and never close an open door because of stereotypes or what other people are doing. You are you and what you do should be what you love.

After this lovely time on the grass we got our things together and made our way to the last session of the day which involved having fun with the hydrogels that are found in nappies! The girls worked closely with the wonderful women from the Royal Society of Chemistry to investigate which out of the three nappies they were testing could absorb the most water: Tesco, Boots or Pampers? The girls' predictions were that Pampers would win but after carrying out their experiment they soon found that Tesco came out on top! They were so surprised by this and the sheer amount of fluid the hydrogels could retain. This showed the girls that advertising has changed the way we see different products - we mainly see large brand names on television and so assume these are better quality. All in all the girls learned lots and lots! I remember taking them to their first session this morning and they were quite quiet but by the end of the day when I was taking them to their last talk they were buzzing with excitement and all I could hear was great things about STEM and what they had learnt today! I don't think the day could have gone any better and I am ever so grateful for being giving the opportunity to participate in the first ever Greenlight for girls event in the UK. My thanks goes to Jess Wade for letting me be a part of it!

It was lovely meeting Katie who also has experience in running Science Clubs - she offered me some great advice!

Tesco came out on top!

The last talks of the day were given by the President of the Imperial College Union, Lucinda Sandon-Allum and Professor Sara Rankin. Lucinda gave the girls an insight into her life and why she chose Biology. She was a huge inspiration and offered some great advice for the girls - GIRLS CAN DO SCIENCE! Prof. Rankin had an incredible career path and was kind enough to share it with us, she was an absolutely amazing female role model for the girls and I left the room feeling very inspired.

The day ended with the Great Science Bake Off where some AMAZING cakes were on display - they must of spent hours making them. They looked GREAT! Prof. Sara Rankin and some young tasters judged the cakes and prizes and certificates were handed out to the best ones. Prizes were wooden spoons and an apron in true Bake Off style!

Such great creativity!

As I was about to leave and start clearing up the girls in my group asked if I could sign their lab coats and I was absolutely touched. This is the reason why I do Outreach - to inspire the younger generation. The girls have so much potential and I cannot wait to see some of them become our future STEMists! Some of the girls' parents and the girls themselves got in touch with me and I invited them to come to future Imperial events so that they can continuously be inspired by the great people at Imperial. Thank you to Jess Wade and Greenlight for girls for an inspirational weekend - I had a fabulous time!

Definitely one of the highlights of the day! (Image courtesy of Jess Wade)