On April 23, 2026, 44 participants took part in the Girls' Day event at the Department of Physics in Bonn. The event consisted of four different workshops for various age groups, led by student teachers and staff members from the institutes, and was integrated into a shared supporting program.
The supporting program began with a joint welcome address by the Executive Director of the Physikalisches Institut, Prof. Klaus Desch, who conducts research at CERN and proudly reported on the recent first transport of antimatter.
Following the workshops, the students had the opportunity to try out hands-on experiments to discover for themselves where physics is hidden everywhere.
To conclude the day in physics, Prof. Slavomira Stefkova’s lecture provided a wonderful insight into “the life of a female physicist.” She shared that she had been very curious even as a child and had questioned many things. She is conducting research on antimatter, among other topics, as part of an international collaboration on the BELLE-II experiment in Japan, and in her talk she was able to bring full circle the discussion Prof. Desch had opened in his welcome remarks at the start of the event.
The workshops covered the following topics:
- What color is white light? (for students in grades 6–7)
- We’re building a light detector (for students in grades 7–10, with the kind support of the E-Labor)
- Hidden in Physics – The Mad Professor’s Documents (Escape Room) (for students in grades 9–10)
- Making the Invisible Visible (for students in grades 8–10, with the kind support of Netzwerk Teilchenwelt)
The girls had a lot of fun experimenting and were very curious. The feedback confirmed this impression: “I really enjoyed the free work on the experiments,” “that we could try out all the experiments in this room.” When asked what they liked best, many students answered, “The free time with experiments.” One student noted, “Everything was relaxed, and you could tell how interesting and important the topic is.” As a contrast to school lessons, they mentioned, for example, “At school, it’s not taught as well or as excitingly” and “Because we could do it ourselves and all our questions were answered.” There was also great enthusiasm for the talk by Prof. Stefkova as a role model: “I found it very exciting to hear about a specific career path,” “I think it’s great to question things, and I think it’s amazing how many languages she can speak.”
