by Lena Hellman
After our expeditions are over and our participants return to their daily lives, we encourage them to share their experiences from their time on glaciers, in fjords, and on mountaintops with their communities. Alumni from Girls on Ice Switzerland report that their presentations to their schools are always well-received. This trend gave us an idea, and we are very excited to announce our new project, From Glacier to Classroom: Peer-to-Peer Communication to Foster Curiosity in Science, has been funded by the Swiss National Fonds! The goal of this project is the organisation of mini-workshops in schools of Girls on Ice Switzerland alumni, which will focus on delivering the direct experiences the girls had during their expeditions to their classmates. We want to bring the spirit of the glacier to the classroom, and peer-to-peer communication will increase the interest of the classmates for these topics.
During the workshops, we’ll explore the work of scientists, deepen our understanding of climate-related questions, motivate students’ critical thinking, and discuss the sensitive communication of scientific topics in the contexts of media and politics. Our workshops will be led by a Girls on Ice Switzerland alumna and one of our female scientists involved with the project, and will be open to classmates of our alumni and high school students generally. We’ll introduce climate change concepts, explore glaciers, examine how glaciers will be impacted by climate change, and why it matters to us. The direct experience on the glacier from our expeditions will enable our alumni to lead workshops with confidence, and through these workshops, we’ll be able to empower even more students in Switzerland through explorations in science and art!