{"id":2064,"date":"2015-10-19T10:24:45","date_gmt":"2015-10-19T09:24:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/lichfield\/?p=2064"},"modified":"2020-04-09T12:13:10","modified_gmt":"2020-04-09T11:13:10","slug":"skirting-science-4th-year-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/lichfield\/2015\/10\/19\/skirting-science-4th-year-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Skirting Science – 4th Year Success!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Wednesday, 13 Soroptimists gathered at Staffordshire University, Lichfield Campus for this popular event.\u00a0 It is held to encourage girls into the STEM subjects of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.\u00a0 Over 80 girls from Year 9-11 attended from The Friary, King Edwards Lichfield, Cheslyn Hay, Nether Stowe and Clayton Hall\u00a0in North Staffordshire.\u00a0 There was a buzz in the Lecture Hall as proceedings were about to begin.<\/p>\n

Lichfield Soroptimist Ellie, a highways engineer, welcomed the girls and staff from the schools and introduced the workshop providers, JCB, Perkins Engines, Smallpeice Trust,\u00a0 Staffordshire University Forensics Dept. and Computing Games Dept\u00a0 The event is in partnership with Entrust, South Staffs College and Staffordshire University.<\/p>\n

Carrying their folder of information and wearing colour coded lanyards for their groups, the girls attended 3 of the 5 workshops each.\u00a0 Chris and Maureen\u00a0have been taking the lead on this annual event and this year, I was able to help in\u00a0a small way with collating information into folders.\u00a0 The organisation necessary for the day to go smoothly was staggering and some group changes had to be made at 9pm the night before as 5 more girls were booked in at the last minute!\u00a0 The workshops were about fun, working in teams and problem solving and all the girls joined in with enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

The day ran beautifully smoothly and Maureen is in the process of collating the review sheets.\u00a0To make this day extra special for us, Soroptimist International Federation President Elect Margaret Emsley attended for the whole day as did Midland Chase Region President Carol Bailey.\u00a0 Margaret gave the closing address as an engineer herself and said that even if the girls did not choose the STEM subjects, they should look more broadly at the career choices available to them.<\/p>\n

The girls were\u00a0a credit to their schools and as they were mixed together, worked alongside peers from other schools.\u00a0The schools have the date for next year and are keen to come.\u00a0 We can say lots about each of the workshops – contact us if you would like to know more.\u00a0 The Planning Guide written for Lichfield Club\u00a0for this project is now available on the\u00a0main SIGBI website.<\/p>\n