Girls into Physics
Published: 23 August 2021
With funding from The Ogden Trust, 46 Year 10 girls have taken part in a three-day online course hosted by the Smallpeice Trust and the physics department of Royal Holloway University of London.
The aim of the course was to get female students excited by the prospect of a career in physics. The course featured an incredible variety in lectures given by academics from Royal Holloway and Q&A sessions with current female physics students.
The three days were filled with interactive lectures, exciting practicals about coding and electricity, and team building exercises that gave the students a chance to bond with each other, even in the virtual environment.
“The feedback from this course has been incredible,” says Zara Cummings, Education Officer for The Smallpeice Trust. “One hundred per cent of the students said they would recommend the course to a friend, as well as all of them saying they now wanted to study a STEM subject – with the course either confirming their thoughts or positively changing their minds!”
“The girls attending really treasured the opportunity to take part, and asked an impressive amount of questions they had about physics and academic life,” adds Claudia Antolini, Ogden Senior Officer for Outreach and Public Engagement at Royal Holloway, University of London. “The course was perceived as extremely valuable and inspiring, really paving the way for the future for the participants and solving doubts about physics.”
Even though the course had to take place online, the girls really enjoyed the time they could spend together. One of the participants reported: “I’m just so happy to meet [sic] new people in this course and form team attitudes towards each other.”
“I learned so much and now know that I definitely want to study physics :)”
“…you gave me the tools I need to face my future. To me physics was a web of confusion and complication until you arrived in my life to solve this mystery.”
You can find out more about The Smallpeice Trust by visiting their website.