Mrs Smart (Head of Science)

To celebrate International Day of Women and Girls in Science on Friday 11th February, we invited Space Engineer, Kate Lang, from Lockheed Martin to speak to our Year 8 students.

Kate gave a little background on her pathway into her chosen career and spoke about the importance of women in science in growing industries such as the space industry. She explained how her knowledge and understanding of materials is key to developing projects such as the Mars Rover, although she wasn’t able to give too much away as what she is currently working on is top secret, classified information! The Year 8 students then had an opportunity to practise their own scientific, engineering and collaborative skills by creating free-standing towers from the limited resources available to them.

Currently, only 11% of engineers in the UK identify as female, the lowest in the whole of Europe, and only 37% of students studying mathematical sciences are female. BGS already has a strong tradition of our past students pursuing STEM related courses and careers and we hope that events like this will encourage even more to do so in the future.

Find out more about how the United Nations is tackling science and gender equality here.

Student reflections about the tower building challenge:

Zaynab Choudhury reflected: “The Space Engineer asked us to build the tallest tower possible in groups using only four sheets of newspaper and one meter of tape. We started out by constructing a tower composed of a series of cone shapes. However, as the tower got taller, we realised that it would collapse easily if we were to step away. To fix this problem, we made supports of varying lengths and stuck them to the table on the four sides of the tower. This was made possible because we coordinated well together, each of us instinctively taking up roles where we needed the most. I enjoyed this fun experience and had a great time with my friends!”

Siri Chukka said: “In our team, we used cones as our base because they were easy to make out of paper and the steadiest shape to use for a tower. As we made our tower taller, it started tilting and we had to wrap it in some newspaper around the bends. Near the end of the time we added more paper to the base so that it could be stable and not topple. Even though we could have made it taller, I think that the stability was more important than making it really tall and unstable. I found this challenge enjoyable and it was really fun working with my friends.”