Demo — Meeting 1: Marie Curie · Girls Who Change the World

The room is dark.

Twelve chairs. Twelve sealed envelopes.

Each girl sees her name.

Nobody opens them yet.

"Welcome. There are twelve of you."

"That's not a random number."

"We chose you because you're curious."

The Initiation

This isn't a welcome speech.
It's a ritual.

Every cohort begins the same way. The structure is identical from Tbilisi to Tokyo. Because the ritual is what makes it real.

The room is dark. The Open Orbit logo is projected on the wall.

The facilitator speaks: "You're here because you're curious."

The Scientist's Oath — every girl repeats it together.

"Now open your envelopes."

Inside: a Scientist's Notebook, an enamel pin badge, and a member card.

GWCTW-2026-S1-0001

A note on permanence

After this moment, she's a member. Forever. Not for a semester. Not until graduation. Forever.

The Scientist's Oath

"I promise to look carefully."

"I promise to ask questions, even when others are silent."

"I promise to be precise."

"I promise not to be afraid of mistakes."

"I promise to remember:
science belongs to everyone."

The Story

Marie Curie, in four acts.

Act 1

The girl who was forbidden to learn.

Poland, 1880s. Women are banned from universities. Maria Sklodowska makes a pact with her sister: one works to pay for the other's education, then they switch. Maria works as a governess for years, studying by candlelight at night. Finally — a train to Paris. Fourth-class ticket. One pillow and dry bread.

Discussion

Imagine being told you can't study what you love — simply because of who you are. What would you do?

This is the question the girls discuss for 30 seconds before sharing.

Act 2

The shed that changed the world.

In Paris, Marie and Pierre Curie work in a converted shed — no proper floor, leaking roof. They process tons of uraninite ore by hand. Four years.

8 tons of ore → 1 gram of radium

8 tons = the weight of two adult elephants. 1 gram = less than a sugar cube.

Act 3

The glow.

Marie describes the beautiful blue glow of radium in the dark. She keeps test tubes by her bed. Carries them in her pockets. Their fingers are cracked and burned. They don't understand: the glow is killing them.

Facilitator action

The facilitator dims the lights. Shows glow-in-the-dark material. Quietly says: "This is what Marie saw every night. Beautiful, mysterious, and deadly." Three seconds of silence. Then lights.

Act 4

Two Nobels and no Academy.

She rose. She was rejected. She kept going. The facts speak for themselves:

1903

First woman to win a Nobel Prize (Physics).

1911

Second Nobel Prize (Chemistry) — to this day, the only person to have won Nobel Prizes in two different natural sciences.

1911

The French Academy of Sciences rejected her. Vote: 90 against, 52 for. Because she was a woman.

1914–18

Built mobile X-ray units ("petites Curies") and drove them to the front lines in WWI. Her teenage daughter Irène came with her.

Always

She refused to patent her method: "Radium is an element. It belongs to everyone."

Today

Her notebooks are stored in lead boxes. To read them, you sign a liability waiver. They will be radioactive for 1,500 more years.

The Laboratory

45 minutes of hands-on science.

Two experiments. Real materials. Real measurements. The girls don't just hear about Marie's work — they replicate the principles behind it.

Experiment 01

Invisible Energy

20 minutes

Materials

Balloons, wool fabric, paper pieces, compass, magnet.

What they do

Charge a balloon with wool, attract paper (electrostatics). Move a compass needle through a tabletop with a magnet (magnetism). Measure how far paper deflects at different charges.

You can't see the charge on the balloon, but you can measure its effect. Marie couldn't see radiation, but she proved: if you can measure it — it's real. If it's real — it's science.

Experiment 02

Separating a Mixture

25 minutes

Materials

Salt, sand, iron filings, magnet, cups, water, filter paper, heat source.

What they do

Receive a pre-mixed sample and must separate it into three components — using magnetic separation, dissolving + filtering, and evaporation.

"You separated a spoonful in 20 minutes. Marie separated 8 tons over 4 years. One gram of radium. That's patience in science."

The Member Kit

What every girl receives.

Not a swag bag. A statement of belonging — designed with the same care as the program itself.

[Scientist's Notebook
— photo coming soon]

Scientist's Notebook

A branded Scientist's Notebook for the full season — from initiation to THE UNSEEN final. Hers to keep.

[Open Orbit Pin Badge
— Aurora purple, gold trim for Founding]

Open Orbit Pin Badge

Enamel pin in the season's color — Aurora purple for Science. Founding Members receive gold trim.

[Member Card
— numbered, personalized]

Member Card

Personalized, numbered, and unique. Every member's connection to the global GWCTW network.

GWCTW-2026-S1-0001

[Certificate of Membership
— at season completion]

Certificate of Membership

Awarded at season completion. Signed by the facilitator. A document she'll keep her whole life.

What Comes Next

Marie discovered that atoms contain energy. But what holds life together? Our next scientist used invisible light to photograph the most important molecule in your body. And someone else won the Nobel for it.

Meeting 1

Marie Curie — Invisible Energy

Meeting 2

Rosalind Franklin — Invisible Structures

Meeting 3

Lise Meitner — Invisible Power

Meeting 4

Chien-Shiung Wu — Invisible Symmetry

Meeting 5

THE UNSEEN — final project, ceremony, certificates

This was one meeting.
One scientist.
One of four seasons.

Girls Who Change the World has 4 seasons, 20 meetings, 20 scientists, and a progression system that keeps girls engaged for years.

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Founder of Girls Who Change the World · CEO, Experimentorium Science Museum

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