Pages

Showing posts with label Sally Ride Space Camp. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sally Ride Space Camp. Show all posts

Saturday, November 19, 2016

Learning about Space Exploration with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget at the Sally Ride Space Camp at Stanford University (Palo Alto, CA) by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget




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

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books



Ruth Paget Selfie