How do the Sally Ride Science events engage girls?
At the science camps, we bring together a small group of girls and have a curriculum of hands-on activities, which culminate in a big activity. If the girls pick astronomy as a theme for the science camp they go to, then the culminating activity is that they build their own telescope and take it home with them. This is in addition to swimming and all the other things kids do at camp. You’ve got to have fun while you’re doing this stuff, too. We also hold five science festivals at universities across the country. These are one-day events where scientists from the community give workshops with hands-on activities. There is typically a keynote speaker, sometimes Sally, sometimes other astronauts or female scientists. It’s a way to bring together about 1,000 kids, teachers, and parents. It’s amazing to just listen to the kids. The girls sometimes have no idea what an engineer does or what an engineer looks like. So when they go to a workshop with a female electrical engineer, and they’re d
