Read our school visit diaries!
19 October 2007
Rymdgymnasiet Kiruna, Sweden
Maria Johansson, Carina Persson,
Carolina Tängemo
We were contacted by a secondary school in Kiruna, Sweden, to participate in a conference about research and science aimed at young girls from the eighth grade through to last year "gymnasiet" students (equivalent to high school). A teacher from the school had learned about SET-Routes and took the initiative together with some female students from Kiruna "Rymdgymnasium" to plan the event. We were each invited to give a talk about our PhDs and our different areas of research.
In total 200 students attended the conference, which took place in the community center of Kiruna.
From left to right: Maria Johansson, Maria Winsa (organiser), Carina Persson and Carolina Tängemo Please click on the photo for a larger version. |
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Maria studied industrial design engineering and gave a very descriptive and easily understandable presentation of the research and kind of jobs you can do after studying such a programme. Industrial design is the design of industrially manufactured items or services. The fact that the programme combines a technical education with more creative subjects, such as design, was appealing to the young girls. Maria illustrated "industrial design" in terms of household items such as a screw-driver and a car. She also showed pictures of where she works and of the many trips that she made during her research project, which was to find out how people from different countries experience design.
Carina gave a very enthusiastic talk about how she discovered astronomy - her studies at university and then how she got the chance to continue in research. She described that as an astronomer you often have to travel to extreme places to collect data, preferably as far away from a city as possible and as high up on a mountain as you can get. Also that it is possible to combine family life (5 children and a boyfriend!!) with a successful academic career.
Carolina Tängemo giving her presentation Please click on the photo for a larger version. |
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Carolina studied molecular biology and is now doing her PhD in Heidelberg. She explained what her PhD involves, describing the concept of cells and how light and microscopy are used to study biological processes. As an example, she mentioned how naturally occurring fluorescence from a jellyfish can be induced inside a cell or larger organisms to visualise the location of a single protein or even to follow the traffic inside a cell. To do this she showed some fantastic images and videos of cells that she had taken herself.
Together, the three presentations showed how broad the field of science and technology can be and the similarities between space and cells.
The fact that the initiative originated from the school and its students made this event very special. It was a good feeling to know that they wanted us to visit and that they already had an interest in science. The students were encouraged to ask us questions. Their main questions concerned our particular fields and general research. One student also wanted to talk about the possibility of combining a PhD with raising a family.
In addition to the students, the local press asked us more detailed questions about the event itself, as well as our specific research areas. The local radio station interviewed the students who had arranged the event, the presenters and the audience on their thoughts. Both of the local morning papers published short articles the next day (Kuriren and Norrländska Socialdemokraten).
The girls from the high school who had arranged the conference made a really good impression on us. Their goal was to give the younger students a flavour of a "real conference". They had prepared an introduction to each speaker and arranged folders containing the programme of the event, which was handed out to the participants. On top of all this, they had engaged sponsors from companies and universities to make short presentations during the breaks.
What we especially liked about the event was the fact that we represented very different research areas, had had different ways of entering the academic world and could also show that it is possible to unite family life with an academic career. However, the fantastic thing about the conference was to gather together so many young girls and to have the opportunity to talk to them about what we really enjoy - research.
As an extra treat, one of the main sponsors, LKAB, invited us to a guided tour in their world renowned iron mine. This was very interesting and well appreciated.
What a day! We had a great time and we hope that we inspired some girls to continue with science and research! In fact, later Maria found out that one of the students who had attended the event had chosen to pursue a career in engineering because she had been so inspired!
Newspaper articles:
Unga forskare inspirerar tjejer
Norrbottens-Kuriren, 21 November 2007
Ni behöver inte vara en Einstein, tjejer
Norrlandska Socialdemokraten, 20 November 2007
Fler tjejer ska lockas in i forskningen
P4 Norrbotten, 19 November 2007