On the 31st of May we had the first Multiplier Event of the FeSTEM project in Zoom.
Due to Covid-19 pandemic, we weren’t able to do the multiplier event face to face as it was planned in the project. Therefore, we had the permission to do the multiplier event online. On the 31st of May 2021, 15:00 CET, the Cyprus University of Technology organized the multiplier event online, by using the Zoom (https://zoom.us/) application.
More than 65 participants joined our event.
Our keynote speaker, Mrs Androulla Vasiliou, Former European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism & Youth participated in our event and talked about the participation of women in STEM in the academia and industry.
During the event we introduced the aim and objectives of the project FeSTEM (Female Empowerment in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics in Higher Education). Then we introduced the project partners and tasks. Next there was a review of the first project Intellectual Output, where we showed some statistics from the surveys conducted with regards to the academic and industrial perspective of the challenges and expectations of women in STEM.
A roundtable discussion also took place in our event with three panelists from Cyprus and Slovenia. The purpose of this discussion was to present and discuss best practices for boosting the presence of women in STEM. Each panelist answered three related questions.
Then, we introduced the last two Intellectual outputs and showed what type of materials were created and where participants could find them.
The second output of the project had to do with the development of a gender-sensitive toolbox. We introduced the tasks of the output and also showcased through padlet (https://padlet.com/irichristou/axyo16eltrg19p9g) our gender-sensitive toolbox and explained how it can be used and what the aims of the toolbox are. At the end we also showcased some examples of gender-sensitive artifacts created by other students, using Google Poly (https://poly.google.com/view/1-mwwSblRo1).
Finally we introduced the FeSTEM Network Platform (https://festem.network/) for empowering women in STEM and explained how it can be used. We then showed the participants how to visit and login to the platform and how to use it.
After each presentation and at the end of the event there was time allocated for questions by the participants. It seemed that all the participants were appeased with our online multiplier event.
The documents of our Intellectual Outputs can be found for:
IO1 – Mapping the challenges and expectations of women in STEM here.
IO2 – Development of a toolbox with traditional and digital materials for constructing gender-sensitive exhibits here.
