Cloud to Classroom: Changing Planet Workshop for Girls and Women 14+ in Geneva, Switzerland

Lead instructor, Liza Goldberg, coaches, and learners discuss learners’ questions and code

RightsTech Women and partners held a fun and inspiring event for girls and women (14+) in Geneva, 11 December 2021

Together with NASA biospheric researcher, Liza Goldberg and partners, RightsTech Women held a training for girls and women aged 14 and older in Geneva, Switzerland. The event took place at SDG Solution Space on Saturday, 11 December 2021. The event was held as part of Europe Code Week 2021. During the course of the day, participants learned basic principles of remote sensing. They got an introduction to using the Google Earth Engine platform to write their own code, for example, calculating forest loss. They learned how to explore appropriate satellite datasets to represent a trend.

The learners practiced coding individually and in pairs, coming up with their own questions and pursuing these with support from the coaches.

Participants learn to use the Google Earth Engine platform, helped by coaches

RightsTech Women founder, Ellen Walker, shared the importance of getting more girls and women into data science and similar jobs, since women are underrepresented in these sectors while the numbers of jobs are growing. Jan van Mol of SDGzine welcomed participants to the SDG Solution Space and gave a participants tour of the FabLab during the course of the day.

Discussing STEM careers and girls’ and women’s options to get into them

In addition to the main learning activity, other activities during the day included a career discussion, in which coaches shared information about their studies in mathematics, computer science and engineering. Learners could ask questions about courses of study, how to study computer science, re-skilling, and more. Learners also got a brief introduction to the human right to a clean, safe healthy and sustainable environment, recently recognized by the United Nations’ Human Rights Council.

It was a fun day, filled with interesting things to learn and exchange. The primary language of instruction for this first edition was English, with assistance available in French. The RightsTech Women team plans to offer a follow-up workshop, as well as a similar version in French for girls and women in Geneva.