Learning about Space Exploration with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget at the Sally Ride Space Camp at Stanford University (Palo Alto, California) by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
One of the great advantages a raising a young girl in Monterey, California is the proximity to Silicon Valley and its educational summer camps. After sixth grade, my husband Laurent and I enrolled our daughter Florence in a weeklong Sally Ride Science Camp at Stanford University.
Florence followed the Shoot for Stars track. Other programs were offered and entitled Deep
Sea Divas and Girl-Powered Gadgets. On
the very first day of class, Sally Ride did a talk on what she had to do for
her education to become an astronaut.
She took questions from the girls.
I loved it that Sally Ride emphasized that mathematics is the language
of science. Camp counselors also used
art, history, and writing to encourage scientific inquiry.
On Monday, they learned about Moon and Mars exploration as
well as the past, present, and future of space exploration.
On Tuesday, they created a NASA glove box and learned how
difficult it is to manipulate objects in space.
By midweek, the girls had all built rocket launchers.
The young astronauts formed exploration groups and made models
of Mars to plan discovery missions. They
made hypotheses and objectives based on what they learned about Mars. The group of girls Florence was in built and
programmed Lego MindStorm Robots. On the
final day of camp, the girls drove their robots across an alien landscape much
like Mars.
Women CEOs and executives from Silicon Valley also spoke and
took questions from the girls at the Sally Ride Science Camp. Ari Ripkin, who had worked on many films,
spoke as did plant biochemist June Smith and Karen Drexler, a medical device
executive. I felt these women and Sally
Ride had all smashed glass ceilings and probably kicked in a few doors in
Silicon Valley. They were wonderful
examples of achievement for my daughter.
The young women who were camp counselors were all studying
to be scientists. A young Chinese woman
who was studying at Harvard was Florence’s counselor. I thought she was a fine example of
achievement, too.
Florence wanted to work in theatre, but I feel that parents
should offer their children a variety of educational and cultural activities to
promote creativity and the ability to think outside the box. Science camp is an activity that I wish more
children had the opportunity to experience in their own communities for these
reasons.
By Ruth Paget - Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
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