Covestro joined forces with global non-profit organisation greenlight for girls (g4g) yesterday (Wednesday 27th March 2019) to host 100 girls from Birmingham at a day-long, hands-on event designed to inspire them in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths).
Girls in years 7-9 from seven state secondary schools in Birmingham and the surrounding area had the opportunity to make polymer ‘worms’, create a necklace from their own DNA, build their own ‘Scribblebot’ and brush-up on theoretical probability with the help of M&Ms.
The day also consisted of a ‘Jewellery Heist’ forensics session run by the ThinkTank’s learning team and personalising their own Covestro labcoat which became theirs to keep.
Covestro
Girls from Arena Academy in Great Barr make ‘worms’ from naturally-occurring polymers.
More than 200 g4g days have been held on six of the world’s seven contintents in cities including Mumbai, New Mexico, Athens, Shanghai, Moscow and Bangkok, since 2010.
This is the first time that Birmingham has hosted a g4g event and the 100 available places had been reserved within one week of the event opening for registrations.
Rachel Owen, Head of Communications EMLA at Covestro, said: “Covestro has long been committed to advancing STEM education. We are delighted that we came to Birmingham with g4g to inspire some young people about STEM, so that we can do our bit to address the underepresentation of females in STEM careers seen in the UK and worldwide.”
Melissa Rancourt, Founder & Board President of greenlight for girls, said: “Wherever g4g goes around the world, we see how profoundly interested girls are in STEM. Our goal is to capture that interest and get girls thinking about the possibilities of careers in science, technology, engineering and maths in order to build a future talent pipeline of female STEM leaders worldwide.”