Explosions heard on campus
Alexia Lang
Issue date: 11/9/09 Section: News
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The Sally Ride Science Festival brought more than 500 Kansas City area children and their parents to campus Sunday to learn about the wonders of science through hands-on projects.
Focused specifically on the engagement of young girls in science, Susan Craig, a volunteer from Los Angeles. who travels around the country to help organize science festivals, said the festival is intended to make a lasting impact on the children.
"We know that in middle school societal pressure causes girls to focus less on science and math and more on English," Craig said. "We want to keep them interested."
Part of the strategy used is introducing the girls to professionals in science fields.
"We let them know that there are fabulous careers out there," she said.
During the festival, students attended discovery workshops taught by local scientists and engineers.
Some workshops included "Can You Land Safely on the Moon?," "Creating a 3-D Interactive Story with Alice," "We Built This City," "Colorful Chemistry of Disappearing Inks," "Mad Science Presents: Fire and Ice Extravaganza," "Chocolate Asphalt Cookie" and more.
Each workshop included hands-on activities. For example, in "We Built This City," Denise Dipiazzo helped the girls build a model of a city, complete with parks, houses, buildings, landscaping and more.
Other workshops showed how chemicals work together. In "Mad Science Presents," the Mad Scientist Kathy Smythe inflated a balloon with the aid of a chemical reaction and touched the balloon to a flame, creating an explosive ball of fire.
In "Colorful Chemistry of Disappearing Inks," Amanda Meyer showed how grape juice and baking soda can create invisible ink.
Because Sally Ride, the founder of the science festival, was the first woman in space, each festival features a speech from an astronaut.
Astronaut Dr. Linda Godwin, a veteran of four space flights with more than 38 days logged in space, spoke to the kids at Swinney Recreation Center about her experiences. Godwin was born in Cape Girardeau, Mo., but her hometown is Jackson, Mo.
Construction, explosions, chemical reactions and more came together to keep the kids oohing and aahing.
"It's just lots of fun!" Craig said.
alang@unews.com
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