This month, we flew to India, Poland and Sweden, drove to Belgium and the US, we packed cars and suitcases with robotics kits, voltmeters, and test tubes, and we bought enough corn starch for a life supply (or, at least, until October hits). We hosted our signature interactive workshops and were thrilled to see our partners developing new ones: From crafting water cleaning systems from scratch to show what engineering is about, to experiencing with cybersecurity, coding and VR in new and innovative ways, our wonderful partners really outdone themselves! Finally, we were so luck to meet these 500 girls who were all curious, enthusiastic, inspiring, and who were not scared to dream big: “Later, I want to be … a doctor, a professor, an engineer, a g4g events organizer” (ok, we might have pushed a bit for the last one!)…
Ready to read all about it? Keep scrolling!
On September 7, 2019, we packed our bags, our DNA extraction kits, our voltmeters and our bath-bombs molds, and we flew to India for our second g4g Day @Bengaluru with Nokia. 150 young girls from the local community came to the impressive Nokia facilities for a full day of science fun! After an inspiring speech by Soma Sarkar, Head of Technology Center at Nokia Bengaluru, girls headed out to a full day of interactive and fun STEM workshops. They explored design engineering while making bristlebots, chemistry while crafting bath bombs, we challenged ourselves thanks to fun STEM quizzes, became true codebreakers, learned about biochemistry while extracting our own DNA, and we explored all the magic that is happening at nokia thanks to a great interactive visit of the Lab, where girls experienced with VR, ... and we all had such a blast! The event concluded with an interesting talk on importance of Science & Math by the Highest Innovation Patent holder in Nokia Bangalore, Nagendra Bykampadi, followed with a closing talk by members of our organizing team, Vinayak Ba- Head of Location Office Nokia Bangalore & Aparna Sethu – Tribe Quality Owner. A major thanks to the wonderful volunteers and teams who joined us today and who organized this event with us, and without whom it couldn't have been possible (particularly Aparna, Rupa, Benedicta and Vinayak!). And a massive thanks to the girls and teachers for coming on this day, we felt lucky to meet you and inspired by your dreams. Bengaluru, we can't wait to be back!
On September 14, we were thrilled to host our second g4g @work in Tessenderlo, Belgium, with Stanley Black & Decker! Helped by more than 20 amazing dedicated volunteers, we hosted a day of STEM fun and discoveries at their fascinating warehouse. 50 girls and boys from the local communities joined us, and together, we dived into chemistry, engineering design, and STEM, and had fun using the SBD tools. Curious for a sneak peek @ workshops? We were Geocaching in the warehouse, putting on our measuring hats to find hidden materials, while trolley racing against centrifugal powers, we gathered and balanced key materials till the finish line (and we explored hidden clues in the box tower, with endoscope cameras!), we got ‘egg-cited’ about engineering in the egg drop challenge – sending our designs to ‘lift off’ for the 8m test with the HILOP, and we got fizzing to discover the beauty of science, making our own bath bombs & lip balm ! A big big thanks to the whole team at Tessenderlo and to all the kids for joining us on this exciting day, and a special bravo to Indra, who led her first g4g Day on her own!
On September 21st, and along with 10 partners, we hosted our 5th g4g Day @Krakow with Cisco and partners at the Cisco offices in Krakow. 150 young and amazing girls joined us and dived into cybersecurity, programming, chemistry, robotics, engineering, coding, and so much more! It was also a wonderful opportunity for us to meet with some committed and enthusiastic greenlight for girls ambassadors: Two of them joined us for the event and hosted their own workshops! Thaisa showed the girls all the beauty of science by playing with chemistry and bath bombs, and Maja presented the girls with an eco-friendly workshop, where girls made their own paint using food coloring, yoghurt, flour and toothpaste. A massive thanks to all the partners involved (Cisco, Aon, Relativity, Nokia, General Electric, Aptiv, ABB, Jacobs, Sabre and IG), and a special thanks to the Cisco team in Kraków for a wonderful event!
Have a look at some of our photos below!
On September 25, we headed to New Britain, USA, for a very special event with Stanley Black & Decker, their Women’s Network and their Leadership program. 60 girls joined us for a fun evening dedicated to science fun and mentorship. Assisted by the 150 young wonderful and energetic leaders from the SBD program, the girls experienced the “Stanley x Science Funlab”, including lots of different activities. In addition to our g4g bristlebot, codebreakers and polymer worms workshops, girls got to build with SBD tools, relay style, have fun with some crazy Fast Math Tricks, and became creative innovators!
It was a full evening of fun, inspiring activities and conversations as every girl went through workshops and activities with her very own SBD mentor. The night was full of laughs, labcoat signing and customizing, engineering with SBD tools and of course some added chemistry, robotics and coding in the mix! This unique event allowed for every girl to make a personal connection with a young professional in all different fields. The girls left inspired and we were inspired by them… Thank you so much to all the great young leaders who joined us, as well as to the terrific SBD team who organized this event with us!
Have a look at some of our photos below
Finally, on September 26, we headed to Sweden, for our first ever g4g @work in Gothenburg, with Stanley Black & Decker. Helped by 10+ amazing dedicated volunteers, we had invited 40 young girls to join us. Using the SBD tools, these girls built bird houses for their friendly neighborhood birds, learnt all about polymer chemistry, saw how we can sweeten math with chocolate, and discovered all the fun behind clue hunting with endoscope cameras and lasers and more.
We will absolutely remember this day for all the inspiring women we discovered in the mystery cube - from Astrid Lindgren, to Malala, Greta Thunberg, all the way to Beyonce! A massive thanks to all the volunteers who came to help us and all the incredible STEM role models of the day, as well as the SBD Gothenburg team for a great event!
You think we were busy in September? That was nothing compared to the 11 events and 800 girls waiting for us in October! We’re very excited to embark on a new month full of fun and hands-on discovery.
And let us finish on a sheering note… GO LUCY! For her birthday in October, our very own HQ Admin Manager, the amazing Lucy, is going to run during two whole weeks in Kenya, where she was born. We are all with her (in spirit, in our pj’s on our couch) !
See you in a month dear g4g readers!
