Actions towards girls and young women

To awake the interest of young girls for scientific careers, special events are organized at EPFL and in Switzerland, such as Polythèmes, scientific summer camps, Maths en jeu or the Coding club des filles. These events are very successful and answer to an overwhelming demand from parents and children.

Scientific workshops Polythèmes

The scientific workshops Polythèmes aim at teaching how to tackle a scientific problem and how to learn scientific concepts by experimentation. Children discover how interesting and amazing sciences are and why they are useful for the society. These workshops are taking place on Wednesdays afternoon. A Polythème entitled Diamant, alu, caoutchouc, ils sont fous ces matériaux ! related to MARVEL fields has been developed and is organized twice a year, for 7 to 10 years old girls.

Summer camp Matériaux super géniaux for 11 to 13 years old girls

A scientific week for 11 to 13 years old girls having for subject different fields related to MARVEL and entitled Matériaux super géniaux has been developed. The first edition took place on August 17-21, 2015, during the summer holiday. Besides hands-on experiments and theoretical explanations young girls discovered the research running in different labs of MARVEL. The relation between what they learn during the scientific week and what is done in the labs was explained. During the week, the participants also prepared a presentation about the lab they visited. As they are divided in different groups and visit different labs, at the end of the week, each group presented a different research project to the other participants and to the parents. The participants also received a certificate at the closing ceremony in presence of their parents. Pictures of the 2015 week can be seen here.

Chemistry summer camp for 11 to 13 years old girls and boys

This 5-days chemistry camp is organized in a real chemistry lab in August and gives the opportunity to about 10 girls and 10 boys aged 11 to 13 years to discover different fields of chemistry and chemical engineering.  Besides experiments accompanied by theoretical explanations, research labs opened their doors to the participants who can discuss with researchers who act as role models and learn about the interest and the usefulness of their research for the society.

Mathematics workshops "Maths en jeu"

Studies show that in many industrial countries, girls do not have enough confidence in their capacities concerning mathematics. For example, the PISA survey 2012 "Are boys and girls equally prepared for life" reports that the students' attitudes towards mathematics are already well-formed by the time students are 15. Even when girls and boys perform equally well, girls are more likely to feel anxious towards mathematics, and have less confidence than boys in their own mathematical skills and in their ability to solve mathematics problems. This contributes later strongly to the non-choice of scientific fields by young girls.

In order to overcome this problem, targeted actions are necessary. This is the case of the mathematics workshops Maths en jeu aimed at girls from 11 to 13 years old.

The main purpose of these courses is to discover mathematics from a common sense point of view. Mathematics is not presented as a hindrance but as a useful tool for a future scientific career. Beginning with one course, following the enthusiasm of young girls to continue such workshops, advanced mathematical workshops have been developed.

Coding club des filles

The Coding club des filles offers coding workshops for girls 11 to 15 years old organized in French, German and Italian throughout Switzerland with great success. A virtual platform has been built to allow the participants to share their experiences and projects and to be put in contact with coaches and mentors.

Summer camp for high school students

MARVEL organize since 2018 a summer camp for high school students, Des atomes aux ordinateurs, à la découverte de la programmation scientifique, and has decided to set aside for girls half of the spots. Indeed, high-school is a good time to help young women consider university studies in a scientific domain and the summer camp is an opportunity show them a little bit what it looks like.