Girlsday 2017

© Harm-Jan Stiepel / ASTRON

It's that time of year again: Girlsday. Like in 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016, a group of 32 girls from four highschools in the region invaded the building. Girls Day is a national initiative promoting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) to young girls aged 10-15 years.

The girls learned some programming in Minecraft, chatted with an astronomer, visited the Dwingeloo Telescope and soldered a badge which will flash 'LOFAR' when moved at exactly the right speed, and experimented with a 3d pen. This may be recognized as almost the same programme as in previous years. New however was the fresh enthousiasm of all the participating girls. We feel confident that these girl became a bit more enthousiastic about science and engineering today, and some of them might even be our future colleagues.

This Girls Day was organized by four institutes located around the Oude Hoogeveensedijk 4: ASTRON, JIVE, NOVA and CAMRAS.