TechnoGirl's Day

On Friday, March 7, about 130 girls from eighth grade to first year of high school gathered at ViteMeir for a day filled with technological inspiration. The day was called TeknoJentedagen, where we collaborated with Vestlandsforsking, Sogn Næring, Sogn Opplæringskontor and Sogn kommunalt opgåvefelleskap (KO).

TeknoJentedagen is part of the larger project "Technojents" led by Vestlandsforskning. The aim of the project is to increase the number of young people, and especially girls, from Sogn to choose technology subjects in secondary school and/or university . Hilde Corneliussen at Vestlandsforskning has researched what makes girls choose technology courses, where, among other things, it emerges that girls need encouragement from a cheerleading squad and good role models to a greater extent than boys.

On ViteMeir The girls heard inspiring lectures from several role models. From the stage, they heard Kaja Hovinbøle and Anna Folmann - KI students from Bergen who were seen by the girls as "atypical" technology students. They talked about their path into the subject, which for Kaja was completely random while Anna had an interest in the subject from the start. The girls also heard from Raquel Tirach and Gizem Venås from HVL Robotics and Isabel Nerland from Hydro who has studied space physics. In addition to talking about their personal and professional relationship with technology, all the role models talked about why it is so important that more girls choose technology education. Here, among other things, they highlighted representation, where the majority of technology is from a male perspective as they are overrepresented.

The girls got to try out different technologies at stations on ViteMeir , where the goal was to inspire them to find it fun to explore new technology. There was an engaged group of girls who, among other things, got to test out robotic arms, 3D-printing of rings and balloon “battles” with remote-controlled cars.

Were the girls motivated and inspired to choose the technology path? After the event , several of the girls were able to say that technology now seemed less scary, more relevant and that they look at a possible future within the subject with new eyes . This makes us even more excited to continue working on the project!

See more from the event on Vestlandsrevyen's broadcast on March 11th here (fast forward to 05.36)

The text is taken from Sogn Næring's website.