She-Space: A multi-disciplinary educational space project for high school girls

Studies investigating the underrepresentation of women in STEM fields found several factors for the gender bias including; lack of female role models, insufficient exposure to STEM subjects, and gender stereotypes. The Earth and Planetary Image Facility (EPIF) in Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, academically accomplished an annual multi-disciplinary educational space project for high school girls, named "She Space". The project was supported and funded by the Israeli Space Agency in the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology. The main purpose of this project was to ignite young girls interested in STEM studies by exposing them to female researchers using space sciences and remote sensing technologies (in particular the Venμs satellite), while enabling them to experience research via hands-on activities in the lab.

During the project, the girls were introduced to remote sensing research and concepts. Satellite remote sensing is an attractive and interesting framework for high-school students as a learning topic and as a tool, and is not taught at high schools. The project implements three educational elements: 1) active learning, 2) A multidisciplinary approach, combining many aspects and terms such as physics, chemistry, biology, geography, and computer science. 3) Context- and project-based learning (PBL). At the end of the project, the girls reported an increase interest in physics and space oriented disciplines as well as increased confident in using computer software. Most of the girls claimed that the gender segregation of the project improved both the social atmosphere (80%), as well as the education atmosphere (60%) in the classes.