sally rides festival.

After a business meeting this morning & quick grocery shopping with Suite-y N, I ran back to campus for the Sally Ride Science Festival. Sally Ride Science, founded by the eponymous first American female astronaut, hosts festivals around the country for 5th-8th grade girls interested in science. The Earth Science department hosted many different Discovery Workshops today, and I signed up for paleontology. After a short powerpoint presentation, we had the girls dig up fossils then make plaster molds of whatever they wanted: twig, leaves, shells, or squirrel droppings anyone?

set up in the academic quad

these sandboxes may look innocent...

I was pleasantly surprised by how enthusiastic and knowledgeable these girls were. One raised her hand five times to share random facts about different dinosaurs that I couldn't even pronounce the names of. To be honest, I was a little nervous I wouldn't be able to answer some of the questions since paleontology isn't really my field of expertise, but I knew more than I thought I did! (What was the oldest fossil of? Bacteria. How do they know how old a fossil is? Carbon-dating, strata)

Everyone was so peppy and interested in the subject. When I asked them what their favorite subjects were, most of them yelled out: "science!" and proceeded to share the latest interesting fact they'd learned from class ("C is carbon! Cl is chlorine!"). One even told me she knew how to balance chemical equations- whoa, we had exams on that in college honors chem!

I am pretty sure I consumed more plaster powder than I'm supposed to. Plaster powder has the weirdest consistency- it feels liquidy even when it is dry, and it is hard to grab any handful. Also, the girls were fascinated by the fact that their paper cups began to warm up as the plaster hardened. They came up to me holding up the cups yelling: "My cup is really hot!" "Why is this getting warm?" Oh, the wonders of thermodynamics.

I hope their fossil molds turned out great & that the girls maintain and cultivate their love for science. Standing on the other side of the podium for once, I realize that really, no question is a stupid question. I'm sitting on my bed with notes and lab reports sprawled out around me- sleeping early on a Saturday night for rowing tomorrow morning.