International Day of Women and Girls in Science

“What do scientists do?” is the activity organized by the Nanotechnology in Surfaces and Plasma group of the Institute of Material Sciences of Seville (ICMS) on the occasion of the Day of Women and Girls in Science. A group of researchers will visit a total of ten schools and institutes in the province of Seville from March 7 to 10 with the aim of encouraging scientific-technical vocations among students, and especially among girls and adolescents in the field of known as STEM.

During the first part of the activity, in addition to explaining the reasons why 11F is celebrated, the participating researchers will present the scientific activity of the CSIC, and in particular, two of the European projects coordinated by the researcher Ana Isabel Borrás Martos (ICMS-CSIC): 3DScavengers, consisting of the manufacture of nanogenerators for capturing environmental energy), and the Sound of Ice , with which five European scientific institutions are looking for a way to thaw ice through acoustic waves.

The students in collaboration with the researchers and the faculty will carry out a representation of part of the work carried out by the scientists in both projects through two main workshops: triboelectricity and hydrophobicity. In the first, the participants will design different circuits to generate energy, making the most of the characteristics contained in different materials found in everyday objects. In the second workshop, the students will learn about the behavior of water with the mixture of different materials and substances based on the principles used in the Sound of Ice project.

Both activities will be carried out in ten institutes and schools in the city of Seville and also some surrounding municipalities such as Gerena, Écija and Lora del Río. In these last two centers, the activity will be carried out in collaboration with the Association of Women Researchers and Technologists (AMIT) within the framework of the project ‘Una científica en tu cole andaluz‘ .