Girl’s Day at ZARM

We were part of the Girl’s Day at ZARM, the centre of applied space technology and microgravity in Bremen. Team leader Greta Sondej will share her experience of this special day.

What was the schedule of the day?

“In the morning the girls (class 5-8) were at DLR School_Lab to carry out different experiments of different fields of space and micro gravity.

During the afternoon they visited ZARM. First they heard an interesting presentation about the drop tower which they could visit after that. Our stand was at the integration hall, where the experiments are prepared to being “dropped” in the drop tower. There the girls were separated into two groups: one to take a closer look at the integration hall and one to come to our stand.

We told them about our project and the REXUS/BEXUS programme. To illustrate this, we established a microscope so that they could watch the foraminifera closely. As you can see on the pictures, we had the flow cell, our experiment module for the rocket and 3D models of our forams. Moreover, the girls asked many questions about us and the programme.

After that, the future scientists could watch a drop tower experiment live. They watched the falling capsule as well as the experiment through a huge monitor, which was really exiting.”

How did it feel to present FORAREX?

“I really enjoyed presenting our project to the girls. At the beginning we were nervous and were not sure how the girls would react to our stand. But when they arrived smiling and began to curiously examine our display models, we were relieved!

Our project and especially the foraminferas (the living ones as well as the 3D model) were the most interesting subject to our visitors. (“They are funny!” “Where do they live?” “What do they eat?” “Is this made with a 3D printer? That’s cool!”).”

What was the happiest moment to you?

“It was great to see the sparkling eyes of the girls watching the falling capsule live through the monitor. The vibration of the ground after landing aroused a laughter in the audience.

When some of the girls told us about biology being their favourite subject in school so they are dreaming of studying it, especially Scarlett and me were delighted.”

Is there anything you want to add?

“I want to thank ZARM for the great cooperation – special thanks to our partners that helped us out with the display models for our stand.

ZARM told us that our presentation gave courage and confidence to the girls, which is a great feedback to us. Due to that we are motivated to keep being active to the future generation of scientists behalf!  Considering this we are looking forward to Girl’s Day 2019!”