11th February, on-line activities to encourage scientific careers for younger girls

Attendees at the 2017 11F activities in La Laguna
Participants in the activities held on the occasion of Women and Girls in Science Day on 11 February 2017. Credit: Elena Mora (IAC).
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Authors
SCIENCE COMMUNICATION AND OUTREACH UNIT

For a further year the IAC is celebrating the International Day of Women and Girls in Science with activities to encourage the interest of the younger girls in scientific and technological careers.

According to the report “ Women scientists in figures, 2017” the proportion of women in the total of the researchers in Spain has no trisen in the past 10 years, holding steady at 39%. But worse, at later stages in the research career this pecentage drops to 29%. In order to redress the balance  on December 15th 2015 the General Assembly of the United Nations proclaimed 11th February the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, and invited organizations to hold relevant educational and public outreach activities.

As in previous years, at the IAC we have prepared various activities, staring with the on-line chats with educational centres in the project “Talk to them: Women in Astronomy”. From its start in 2019 over 2000 students have participated, from primary school to pre-university level, from eleven Autonomous Spanish Communities. In the new edition 26 women astrophysicists and engineers from the IAC and from collaborating institutions will explain to the students what their work is about, they will talk about their fields of research, and will answer questions about scientific and technological degrees, about the Universe and the methods used to learn more about it. Educational centres which are interested can book these videoconferences from now until the end of this academic year.

On the 11th, we will also start Chapter VII of the series “Girls who broke the glass ceeling while looking at the sky”. Since 2017 these videos have presented talks by women astrophysicists and engineers at the IAC with the aim of promoting scientific careers among the younger girls, and to spread a knowledge of what is being developed in this research centre.

After the success of the last edition, in which there were more than 600 chats, and over 200 hours of conversation with people of all ages. On February 18th from 09.00 hrs to 21.00 hrs (Canary Island time) from ten in the morning to ten at night in the Peninsula) the fourth edition of the activity “Chat with a woman astronomer” organized by the Commission for Women in Astronomy of the Spanish Astronomical Society (SEA). For 12 hours women astrophysicists from a range of universities and organizations, among them 12 IAC researchers, will answer via the Chat the questions about their experiences as womenscientists, the research that they are carrying out, and other topics related to women and astronomy

In addition, the international consortium which runs the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) which will be building a gamma-ray observatory on La Palma and another one in Chile to study the most violent phenomena in the universe, will be celebrating the third edition of “Women of CTA” an event which brings together three women scientists to talk about their professional and personal experiences in the field of High Energy Astrophysics. Mireia Nievas, from the IAC group, a soft ware expert, will take part in this edition.

The astrophysicists and engineers of the IAC will also participate in the lectures in the project Canary Women Scientists, organized by the Canary Temisas Observatory Foundation, Researchers of La Palmas (INVEPA), and the Area of Scientific Vocations and Creativity (STEAM) of the Canary Government; in the conferences Woman and Science, organized also by the Canary Temisas Observatory Foundation, INVEPA and the Woman, Education and Science Association, and in the “women and girls in science” days, coordinated by the Canary Agency of Research Innovation, and the Information Society (ACIISI). Also the panel discussion organized by the Polytechnic School of Gijón, to celebrate February 11th: What does a woman telecommunications engineer work on? They will also participate in a variety of science days organized in different educational centres on the Island: Science Days at the CEIP Las Mercedes, Women inScience at the IES El Sobradillo, and a lectura at the IES Villalba Hervás in La Orotava, in the annual cycle of lectures of thte Group of Astronomical Observers of Tenerife (GOAT) and in the talks about “Women in Astronomy” within the project CosmoLAB: The Solar system as a laboratory in the classroom.

Pesonnel from the IAC who will participate in the above activities:: Alicia López Oramas (IAC), Ana Esteban Gutiérrez (IAC), Arianna di Cintio (IAC/ULL), Carmen P. Padilla-Torres (FGG-IAC), Estrella Zatón (IAC), Icíar Montilla (IAC), Josefa Becerra González (IAC/ULL), Julia de León Cruz (IAC), Lucía González Cuesta (IAC), María Jesús Arévalo Morales (IAC/ULL), Montserrat Armas Padilla (IAC), Nayra Rodríguez Eugenio (IAC), Núria Casasayas Barris (Leiden Observatory/IAC), Patricia Chinchilla Gallego (IAC / Univ. Liège), Paula Izquierdo Sánchez (IAC), Sandra Benítez Herrera (IAC), Núria Salvador Rusiñol (IAC), Virginia Cúneo (IAC), Antonia M. Varela Pérez (IAC/Fund. Starlight), Begoña García Lorenzo (IAC), Natalia Arteaga (IACTec), Paz Alonso Arias (IAC/ULL), Jorge García Rojas (IAC/ULL), Carme Gallart (IAC), Laura Sánchez Menguiano (IAC/ULL) y Mireia Nievas (IAC).

Other collaborators:: Alba Fernández-Barral (CTAO), Beatriz Mingo (The Open University), Evanthia Hatziminaoglou (ESO), Francesca Pinna (MPIA), Gloria Andreuzzi (Telescopio Nazionale Galileo), Jenny Carter (University of Leicester), Nataly Ospina (Università degli Studi di Padova e INFN Padova) y Sara González Pérez (ULL / IACTec).

A list of the activities:

Related projects
Poster of the activity "Habla con ellas: Mujeres en Astronomía"
Talk to Them: Women in Astronomy
What is it? It is an IAC initiative that aims to make visible the work of women in Astronomy-Astrophysics, while offering girls inspiring models to promote their scientific and technological vocations. It consists of videoconferences with educational centres by women astrophysicists and engineers who work at the IAC and at other institutions
Nayra
Rodríguez Eugenio
In progress
The Optical Ground Station and the Moon at the Teide Observatory
CosmoLAB: The Solar System as a laboratory in the classroom
"CosmoLAB" is a project run by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) with funding from the Cabido de Tenerife, and in collaboration with the Consejería de Educación y Universidades and the Museo de la Ciencia y el Cosmos, that was launched in 2018. The main goal of the project is to bring Astronomy and, in particular, the practice of
Alfredo Rafael
Rosenberg González
In progress
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News type
Press release
Scope
Outreach
Severo Ochoa
SO Outreach
Outreach
Gender Equality
General public
11F
SEVERO OCHOA

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