Attending San Jose (CA) Science Conferences for Teens with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget and Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

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 6^th and 9^th grades.

2003 was the best year we attended since it was the 25^th 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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Bird Watching at Elkhorn Slough in Moss Landing (CA) with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget and Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Bird Watching at Elkhorn Slough in Moss Landing (CA) with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget and Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

After I chaperoned a field trip for my daughter’s Waldorf School to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, I wanted her to see ocean and migratory birds in their natural habitat.  We drove to Elkhorn Slough, a few miles north of Monterey across from Moss Landing to do this.

Elkhorn Slough is an estuary.  It is a body of water with an opening to the ocean with rivers and streams flowing into it.  The Reserves’ brochure said that Elkhorn Slough winds inland for seven miles and encompasses 2,500 acres of marsh and tidal flat.

The visitor’s brochure went on to state that nearly 90% of California’s estuaries have been destroyed.  An impressive number of wildlife finds homes in estuarine habitats.  The one at Elkhorn Slough is home to over 400 invertebrates (animals without a backbone), 80 species of fish, and more than 200 species of birds.  The visitor’s center staff said that if you included migratory birds, Elkhorn Slough hosts and is home to 267 species of birds that have been identified in its area.

The visitor’s brochure also stated that six rare, threatened, or endangered species use the Slough – peregrine falcons, Santa Cruz long-toed salamander, clapper rails, brown pelicans, least terns, and sea otters.

You can see the birds and other wildlife from eight different walking trails.  The day of our first visit, we started with the Overlook of Elkhorn Slough Channel Trail, which follows the main channel.  There are Native American burial sites visible on this trail, but you cannot visit them.

We had exchanged our driver’s licenses for binoculars at the visitor’s center and looked at tree branches and over the water for birds.  We saw white pelicans form a circle in the water and then dive for fish.  It was a cute bobbing show.  There were also black cormorants and bald eagles out in the water.  We walked about two miles and soaked up the sea breeze as well as the smell of dry leaves.

We bought a membership to the Elkhorn Slough Foundation to obtain free entry for a year.  There were seven more walking trails that we wanted to explore:

-Long Valley Loop Trail – Woodland Trail

-Coast Live Oak Trail – Native trees that are home to birds, mammals (warm-blooded animals whose females carry developing babies within them), and insects

-Parson’s Slough Overlook – Sand dune area with the opening to the Monterey Bay

-Eucalyptus Grove – Trees imported from Australia in the 1800s

-Old Elkhorn Dairy Site – Kids love playing in the abandoned barns here that are supplied with a few haystacks

-Marsh Restoration Project – Site of experimental studies in marsh biology and ecology

-Elkhorn Slough Overlook – Ancient river valley trail

I left the Elkhorn Slough happy that groups like our French-language and culture club, the Alliance Française, did monthly walks there to support the conservation efforts of the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve.  Elkhorn Slough also has picnic tables for families and groups who wish to make their visit an all-day outing.

I love exercise that involves bird watching and think Elkhorn Slough is great for this reason.

By Ruth Paget, Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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