On January 25th, 2021, 13 girls in 6th grade (11-12 years old) from public primary school number 2 – Szkoła Podstawowa im. Komisji Edukacji Narodowej w Białobrzegach in Poland participated in a virtual IGNITE Worldwide event!
The girls met an expert in the field of urban design. Ms. Marta Urbańska, works at the University as a lecturer of urban design and is a freelancer in urban planning and a graphic designer. Moreover she also cooperates with the NGO “Code for Poland” where she helps to design applications for smart cities.
During the presentation, Ms. Marta has shown a graphic which was showing- what she was interested in, when she was at the age of the participants. As a young girl she had a vast scope of hobbies, she was trying many different things – and it helped her to choose her present career.
Ms. Marta has asked girls what does “a city” mean for them and what is the urban planning. Later Ms. Marta showed pictures of cities and asked the participant what’s wrong with them, photos were showing a street with lot’s of cars and only small path for pedestrians. On that example the expert explained that nowadays the proportions should be opposite, because there are too much cars, and cities should be for people, which would have positive effect on climate as well. The expert said that in the past the engineers and city designers were man, now there are much more woman and their approach is entirely different. She asked girls how would look like city built by woman. Girls said that there would be much more green areas and places to rest.
Ms. Marta has asked girls to design their parklets and they had many interesting ideas! For example, the girls suggested to have special places for pets, plants, a book corner, and many more great ideas. eg. Places for pets, plants a book corner etc.
Girls were very interested and engaged in this workshop, and would like to have more events like this in the future. Their feedback and response was very positive!
We would like to thank Ms. Marta Urbańska who has inspired girls to take action in STEM. Also, a special thanks to Ms. Kasia Klich-Charlicka who coordinates the group and encourage girls to develop their passions. I would like also to thank IGNITE Worldwide for their constant support.
After attending this event:
88%
of students are now more interested in STEM
Here’s what the students thought of the event:
“I liked the expert very much! It was great to listen her and I hope that the next IGNITE event also will be with Ms. Marta.”
“I liked everything!”
“I want to thank for this very important lesson!”