Attending San Jose (CA) Science Conferences for Teens with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget and Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
My husband Laurent and I took our daughter Florence to the “Exploring Your Horizons in Science and Mathematics Conference” for three years in a row to San José State University (SJSU). This conference was organized by SJSU and the Math/Science Network for young women between the 6th and 9th grades.
2003 was the best year we attended since it was the 25th
annual conference. Laurent went to all
the fun science workshops that were led by women with Florence while I did the
college admissions and financial aid sessions.
The first session that Florence and Laurent went to had them
look at the properties of density and surface tension. The session was called “Sink or Swim” and had
real-life applications I thought for swimming.
The session was run by graduate students, which was a good way for them
to do community service work I thought.
Then, Laurent and Florence went to a session run by Agilent
Technologies Engineers called “Lasers, Lenses, and Light.” They did experiments with lights and laser to
learn how a TV uses color and how fiber optics is used to transmit phone calls.
In the third session called “Can a Cardboard Boat Float?”
the girls worked in teams to get a boat to float. Florence said her boat floated, but it was
hard to tell why exactly. Later that
night Laurent worked a calculus problem to show Florence that you want to get a
cube as big as possible to float on the water.
Meanwhile, I went to workshops on financial aid, the college
admissions process with information on writing college admissions essays, and
choosing the right college. I had been
to these workshops beginning in grade 6 for Florence, but they got better every
year. I especially appreciated having
admissions deans from competitive schools speak.
We ate lunch and we traded stories about what we learned at
the workshops. I wished a similar
conference could be held where I lived; it takes venue, insurance, workshop
leaders, supplies, bag lunches, and children, teachers, and parents to
organize. You need money to fund this,
but you need the basic organization first.
Florence participated at two science fairs as a result of
this conference. She did one project on
volcanoes and another one on the golden ratio found throughout nature. I am grateful to “Expanding Your Horizons”
for that alone and wish the conference held a workshop on how to prepare for
science fairs. This conference drove home the fact to her
that math is very important in every sphere of life as well. The money spent on this conference was well
invested I thought.
By Ruth Paget - Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
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