Leeds joins Girls into Geoscience initiative
The University of Leeds joins the Girls into Geoscience initiative for its seventh year.
Girls into Geoscience aims to introduce young female and non-binary people in the later stages of high school to the scientifically diverse field of geoscience through a free virtual event.
Girls into Geoscience was launched in 2014 at the University of Plymouth, expanding to include the universities across the UK and Ireland. This year’s events will be held online on 28th and 29th June and will be the first time that the University of Leeds is involved.
“We are delighted to be joining the incredibly successful Girls Into Geoscience initiative as the new “GiG North” chapter” said Dr Tracy Aze, from the School of Earth and Environment at Leeds.
“The project has already inspired so many young people to get more involved in geosciences, so we are very excited to provide a presence in the north of England to help foster this further. This year we are joining the virtual event team and we look forward to running campus-based events in future years.”
The Girls into Geoscience events bring together women from industry, government bodies, academia and high schools in order to highlight and promote geoscience and its potential as a valuable subject and career for women to pursue. Geoscience is rarely offered as a subject in its own right in schools across the UK but aspects of geoscience are taught in mainstream subjects such as chemistry, biology, geography and physics.
This year’s event, like last year’s, will be held online due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, which offers new opportunities to expand the diversity of speakers along with the number of attendees.
Girls signing up to take part this year can look forward to a varied selection of speakers talking about their careers in the geosciences. A series of question and answer panels will cover topics including life in the field, careers, and University life. Attendees can also choose from a host of virtual fieldtrips, from the Himalayas to Skye, and workshops looking at Peruvian glaciers, natural hazards, microfossils, climate change and forensic geology.
Anyone interested in attending the event must register by 18th June 2021 and can do so by completing this online form. More information can be found here.
