Girl Guides took part in a hands-on engineering workshop as part of an Introduce a Girl to Engineering Event hosted by the Kirkcudbright Dark Space Planetarium.
Activities were led by Gillian Gurr, a former Kirkcudbright Academy pupil who is now senior geotechnical engineer with WSP, one of the world’s leading engineering companies.
The Kirkcudbright Girl Guides discovered how engineers tackle the challenges associated with providing safe drinking water around the world. They each used their problem-solving skills to design and test a working water filter. The Guides used a variety of natural materials, including sand and gravel, to test how clean they could make contaminated water. There was a lot of excitement to see which filter design worked best. The event was run as part of Introduce A Girl To Engineering Day which is held every year on the 24th February. The day is all about encouraging girls to consider engineering as a career in what is currently a male-dominated profession.
Gillian said
“It was great to be back where I grew up, to share my experiences as a female engineer and promote what the industry can offer aspiring engineers.”
Frances Coombey, Dark Space Planetarium Manager, said
“it is wonderful that the Dark Space Planetarium can be used to inspire girls who might grow up to be the great innovators and scientists of the next generation”
Katherine Naylor, Guide Leader, said
“the girls had great fun experimenting with different materials as well as seeing that there are a wide variety of engineering jobs that they could aspire to. I hope some of the Guides will consider engineering as a career in the future”
