Kangaroo goes Science Day
More than 90 girls and nearly 80 parents attended the first Kangaroo goes Science event organized by the Department of Mathematics, the association Känguru Schweiz, the ETH Zurich and the Zurich section of 500womenscientists.
After a warm welcome by Meike Akveld, President of Kangaroo Switzerland and Sarah Springman, Rector of ETH Zurich, the girls and their parents listened to an inspiring lecture by Marloes Maathuis on the importance of mathematics in everyday life using soccer pictures as an example.
The mathematics lecture was followed by the presentations of three female students who talked about their personal experiences and challenges of a students life at ETH.
The morning event was rounded off by the award ceremony for the top five best girls of the competition.
In the afternoon the girls had the chance to visit laboratories at ETH and University of Zurich together with female students. Among other things, they learned how plants react when they are stressed, how materials can be cut with lasers or how colourful nanoparticles can be produced.
Twenty four of the young students visited the lab of Grassland Science (D-USYS and WFSC member group). They learned about the responses of plants to drought and flooding: they measured stomatal conductance, observed reduction in CO2 concentations due to photosynthesis, and examined stomata under the microscope. The girls were coached by Annika Ackermann, Anna Gilgen, and Sabina Keller from the group. Sabina mentioned about the experience: “It’s very motivating to work with young students because they are extremely open and curious.“
At the final reception the girls could recall the days' events and hopefully left ETH full of lasting inspiration and enthusiasm for science and technology.
Kangaroo goes Science webpage