Ooohh July! The sun, the ice-cream, the beach, the free time… Free time? Not at g4g!
In July, we went all out! To kick things off, we held two events with Stanley Black & Decker in the USA and India, we hosted three weeks of our STEM Summer Camp at the International School of Brussels, and we attended our very own special Summer Bootcamp. What a month!
First off, we were thrilled to be back at the International School of Brussels for three weeks of Summer Camp until July 12! For the third year in a row, we offered kids at ISB Summer Camp a range of exciting science activities. Hurrah to all the amazing young scientists who joined us (25 new faces each day!). Together we learnt everything there is to know about light, the colour spectrum and chromatography; We explored the secrets of forensics with latent fingerprint dusting & lifting, analyzing fingerprint patterns, invisible ink messages and ink chromatography; We dug into some chemistry while making our own bath bombs; We investigated electricity and created circuits which we used to make our very own customized scribblebots; We put our engineering-skills to the test while completing the “Great Egg Drop” challenge; We got messy with Oobleck and magic sand (did you know sand could be hydrophobic?!)…. and so much more! A massive thanks to ISB for hosting us and a big bravo to our amazing science instructors of the year: Indra, Emily, Ruairí and Alex!
On Saturday July 13, we welcomed 20 excited and curious kids for our new makerspace. We explored all about biodiversity and how different species can coexist, we talked about the importance of biodiversity to have resilient ecosystems and we learned all about the environment and the communities of life around us. Kids built a terrarium (to model the greenhouse effect), engineered their own insect hotels (the perfect way to offer some rest to solitary bugs in the city) and made seed bombs! A big big thanks to all the kids and parents who came on Saturday and a huge bravo to our wonderful volunteers and teachers of the day; Indra, Emily, Valentine and Tracy!
Then, on July 18 we headed out to the US for our first g4g @work in New Britain with Stanley Black & Decker. "What are the secrets of innovation? What are your biggest and wildest dreams?" These were some of the questions posed by Stanley Black & Decker’s first CTO, Dr Mark Maybury, as he welcomed 46 curious girls to our g4g event. With the help of 34 incredible volunteer role models, the girls learned how to code, explored statistics with M&Ms, engineered their own robot, created chemical reactions and even learned that listening, exploring, and collaborating are some of the secrets of innovators. What a day! Thank you to everyone involved for helping to bring such a fun day to life - we can’t wait for the next one!
On July 19, we were in India. Here, we met up with 58 wonderful and curious girls for our first g4g @work in Pune, India, with Stanley Black & Decker! Helped by 13 amazing and dedicated volunteers, we hosted a full day of STEM fun and discoveries. Girls from the local communities joined us and together we dove into electrical engineering, robotics, engineering design, and had fun using the SBD tools. Our goal? To show them that girls and STEM make a great combination and Anything is Possible! A massive thanks to all the volunteers who came to help us and all the incredible STEM role models of the day: Mr Sunil Krish, Director of Manufacturing, who heads the Pune Plant facility, along with the leadership team - Mr Satish Pawar, HR Manager, and Ms Vinitha Mani, HR Manager & Women’s Network India Chapter Leader, as well as our g4g representative, Allan Rodrigues. India, we will be back!
Finally, the whole g4g crew gathered in our beautiful atelier in Brussels for some serious bonding and “boot camping!” We explored a few new STEM activities, wondered how we could incorporate more VR, more chocolate and more yoga into our upcoming workshops, (come back in the Fall to see all the answers!) and we took a deeeeppp breath before cleaning the whole g4g atelier and sorting out all our workshop material! In a nutshell, we are ready for the holidays… and we can’t wait for the upcoming crazy Fall-season which is jam-packed with fun events around the world!
