An on-campus day designed for Year 9 female students to encourage young women to consider the benefits of further study, and careers, in science and engineering.

Dragonfly Days are a popular initiative run in partnership with the Outreach team for Year 9 girls from local schools. Participants have an opportunity to meet and work with female engineers from the Faculty of Engineering and the Environment. As well as doing practical investigations and experiments, there are opportunities to explore careers in STEM and to quiz our researchers about their path to University.

Recent events have been led by female researchers and students, within the following disciplines Tribology , Acoustics , Geology , ?-VIS X-ray Imaging Centre , Astronomy , Mechanical , Spaceflight and 'People Like Me' .

Dragonfly Days represent the Faculty on the RCUK-funded Talk to US initiative developing best practice in school-university partnerships.

Dragonfly Day 2020/21 – Delivered at home/in school

As we have been unable to run Dragonfly Day on campus this academic year, we are very excited to bring Dragonfly Day activities direct to your school (or home if schools are closed), over 3-4 weeks in May 2021.

We have teamed up with the amazing Invent Plus to come up with a whole range of exciting and engaging activities, including:

• A plenary talk from a high profile woman in STEM, available both live and on-demand
• 3 x self-contained activity kits for every student participating, delivered once per week, with which they can do guided practical activities from learning about electronic and mechanical engineering by creating their own light-controlled vehicles, to building and testing a hydraulic bridge to discover structural engineering and fluid dynamics
• A shared Q&A/celebration board, where students can ask questions about life and careers in engineering, and/or discuss and share their creations with the activity packs, to our female engineering researchers and students
• A selection of on demand digital content, including videos and virtual tours
• A celebration event and panel discussion, with women at every stage of the career and academic journey

To find out more or register interest for your students to get involved, contact Dr. Jess Spurrell on supo@soton.ac.uk or 023 8059 7521!