Girls’ Day 2018 at ESOC
The European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt (ESOC) participates in the Girls' Day programme which took place this year on 26 April, with an aim to stimulate the imagination and creativity of young girls and encourage them to pursue scientific and engineering studies, with a particular focus on space.
In Germany, Girls' Day is a day when many organisations, research centres and universities hold an open day for girls by promoting job prospects in STEM in male dominated environments.
Girls of all ages are great academic achievers and often take home the highest marks in their class. When it comes to choosing an area of further study however, girls opt for subjects such as natural sciences and engineering much less often than boys do. Consequently, girls remain consistently underrepresented in scientific, technical and engineering jobs.
Forty girls aged 14 to 16 attended this programme in ESOC. They participated in an array of activities, including the launch of a water rocket, presentations conducted by women engineers, a guided tour of the ESOC facilities and a question and answer session with women working at ESA. The presentations centred on our Universe, the End-to-End Ground Segment Reference Facility and the ESOC Power Plant.
The ESA Education office and ESOC aim to nurture young people's interests in space and technology throughout the year. To learn more about ESA's educational projects, take a look at our teacher’s corner.