Houses full of candies, leaves on the ground, shorter days… there is no doubt that autumn is here – but while days are short, we are making the most of them. So, what did this month bring to the g4g team?
On October 6, the whole g4g team gathered in Barcelona: Melissa, Alex, Lucy, Loredana and Marie joined the fantastic Cisco Partners in Spain (thank you David & Raquel!) to host the second g4g Day @Barcelona in three years. 200 girls spent the whole day immersed in STEMtastic workshops and enjoyed the presence of so many role models from our 16 partners: T-systems, Indra, BBVA, Procter & Gamble, Simon, Nexica, La Salle, Comstor, Cisco, IQS, Blanquerna, Submon, Robotix, CRG, Talent Up, HP/ HP Aruba.
In addition to some Wify Magic and slime making, girls tested out the science behind their 5 senses, went to explore Mars, discovered the marine environment, fought the cyberspace and yes of course, they also came up with our signature DNA necklaces. The days wouldn’t have been the same without the presence of all our fantastic guest speakers: Dra Guiomar Corral from La Salle Universitat, Joana Barbany and Neus Lorenzo from Generalitat de Catalunya, Xavier Massa, from Cisco Barcelona, Melissa Rancourt, our very own g4g founder and special messages from our great sponsors, Rosa María Rodríguez Curto from T-systems and Elisenda Escofet from Indra. Thank you so much to all of them!
See our full Facebook album here
On October 9, Alex packed robotics kits and snap circuits and headed over to the European Parliament for an afternoon on tech discovery with Public Libraries 2020 for the 2018 Generation Code! The girls had the opportunity to delve into cutting-edge technology, meet with local officials, have an insider's look around the Parliament building and engage with the different STEM exhibitions (3D printing, coding, programming, etc.). As a bonus, they also had a chat with a 3D unicorn and the robot Zora from Muntpunt library and built robots with Julie Ward Member of the European Parliament! A huge thank you to Public Libraries 2020 for helping us hosting such a fun day!
See our full Facebook album here
Between October 8-13, g4g joined effort with Covestro to organize a five-day event in Mumbai for the #STEM4GirlsFestival2018! Amazing guest speakers took turn to inspire the 1200 girls through this 5 days event: Dr. Juergen Morhard - Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany, Brinda Miller, artist and mentor, Harpreet A de Singh, President of the IWPA (Indian Women Pilots Association), Dr. Pallavi Deshmukh, Scientist at Covestro India, Brinda Miller, Educator, Director of Studio Millenium and honorary Executive Committee Member of the Kala Ghoda Association, Dr. Swati Patankar, professor at IIT Bombay in the Biosciences and Bioengineering department. And all of this is just the beginning! Look out for news as we continue our g4g STEMFestival travels to 4 more cities reaching even more amazing young women!
On Alex’s birthday (yes you read that right!), October 18, the Brussels team rode to London to meet the wonderful Sarah from AIG and host our second g4g/AIG Design Hackathon at the Southbank Center. This year, 85 inventors from all backgrounds and aged 11-15 had one challenge: Design inventions that better their daily life at home, at school or in their community for a specific person of their choosing. Between a robot that could take plastic trash away, door screens preventing burglary, scanning fridges, levitating beds, floating wheelchairs, smart suits for firefighters and a system preventing water wasting, these girls fought on every level to make the world a better place. We were all so astonished by their ingenuity, imagination and creativity that the judges had a really hard time attributing the grand prize! A big thank you to Geoff Godwin, AIG Chief Operating Officer for agreeing to be our guest speaker and judge of the day, as well as to Domino Pateman from the Southbank Centre, for judging all these exciting projects. Buckle up everyone, these kids are ready to take the world by storm!
Have a look at the video of the day here
Two days after this exciting design thinking challenge, Marie joined Loredana in Spain for our first event with Amazon, helped by the amazing teams over there led by Ariadna and Gloria! On October 20, 40 girls came to the amazon facilities in Madrid for an exciting g4g @work event! In addition to the traditional lab coat customization and the exciting workshops the team had come up with (coding, robotics and DNA necklaces!), they all got the chance to explore the huge amazon warehouse and discover how the packages were prepped for and shipped. Yes, the label maker was a big hit. Yes, learning that the labels are glued thanks to potatoes even more! A massive thanks to Alexandra Sierra, Amazon Prime Now Site leader, for leading such a fun and interactive opening ceremony!
See the full photos album here
Since we couldn’t simply stop after such a hit, Marie and Lore met again in Barcelona, one week after, for another g4g @work with Amazon, this time in Barcelona! Indeed, on October 27 another group of 40 girls got the chance to visit the biggest amazon warehouse in Spain! In addition to some signature g4g workshops, the girls also raced in an epic marshmallow/spaghettis challenge. An impressive tower of almost 40 cm took the trophy home!
The same day, Lucy and Nikki were hosting our October makerspace in Brussels. Thanks to Stanley Black & Decker’s help, 30 kids got the opportunity to visit our atelier and design the homes of tomorrow. Using their trusty glue guns and some coding skills they came up with pretty innovative solutions to today’s problems. Wanna see?
Finally, on October 31 Andrea took Halloween as a great opportunity to, once again, make the science of everyday life come alive in a classroom with a new and improved Trick or Treat Science!
Motivated teachers + excited kids + the international day of candies + fun hands-on STEM workshops = a new g4g in the classroom in Pine Bush, NY full of inquiry, discovery, teamwork, learning, and FUN! It just might be possible that the teachers enjoyed the day as much as, or maybe even more than, the students… and of course, the chance to enjoy some candy while learning is always a bonus!
