Mädchen machen Technik 2019

"Mädchen machen Technik" is a summer program organized by the Technical University of Munich every year. School girls between 10 and 16 years old are invited to universities and departments to discover how exciting and challenging research in natural science and engineering can be.

This year, seven school girls between 12 and 14 years old visited the meteorological institute in Munich for a two-day workshop from September 4^th - 5^th 2019. They discussed weather phenomena and their connection with each other, highlighting the complexity of the atmosphere dynamics. They then performed little experiments with balloons, hot and cold water and much more to learn about pressure, temperature, clouds, convection and the Coriolis force. They were then able to visualize some of the phenomena in the lab and on the roof where they got a tour of the instruments. The day ended with two short presentations given by Master students about studying and doing research at the institute, and about the possibility to study abroad for a year or more with the ERASMUS exchange program. The focus of the second day was on numerical weather forecasting (NWF) and climate change. The participants discovered the challenges of NWF during a team activity, as they computed their own temperature forecast based on the Forecast Factory. After having lunch in the university canteen, the participants interviewed a few colleagues working at the institute about their everyday life and found the experience very insightful. The last activity was a role play where the participants representing either an industrialized or a developing country had to negotiate to reach the 2 degree goal for global temperature. The workshop ended in a lecture hall where the participants filled out a feedback questionnaire and left notes on the blackboard for the students starting mid-October!

Thank you to all the volunteers who made this workshop possible!

Click here to see the program of the workshop (in German).

Experiments with temperature, pressure, etc. (top, left), lab experiment to visualize the Coriolis force (top, center), group performing the lab experiment (top, right), message left by the participants on the blackboard of a lecture hall (center, left), group picture on the roof of the institute (center, right), group picture in the lecture hall (bottom, left), home-made thermometers (bottom, center), and lunch break outside of the institute (bottom, right).

To see past "Mädchen machen Technik" workshops at the institute, click here.