SciGirls I 2015 - Day One

Can you believe it?  The 2015 Summer Experience Tour for Sci Girls I Tallahassee began at 9 this morning.  What a truly incredible first day we have had right here around Innovation Park.  The day started with a short welcome, official Sci Girl Camp Photos, identification badging, and water testing at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory.  From the Maglab, we took a short trek to WFSU for a super-exclusive Skype session with Dr. Amy Mainzer, an astrophysicist in jet propulsion science who is currently working on a new PBS series “Ready, Jet, Go!” that is designed to start 3 to 8 year olds thinking about scientific inquiry.  Dr. Mainzer has an awesome job.  How would you like to spend your day finding asteroids (that are actually the size of mountains or football fields) and/or building telescopes?  She shared so much valuable information about our middle-aged sun that included the knowledge that in about 4 to 5 billion years it will swell to form a red giant that could possibly swallow the earth.  Dr. Amy was very excited that programs such as Sci Girls exist and reminded the girls that her job as an astronomer has provided her an opportunity to explore real science where you have to figure it out for yourself.  After this interactive lunch experience, we moved outside for “Water Moves”, an outdoor game involving water and puzzle solving in which campers have to think about ways water moves within our local environment and community. The game incorporated sprinklers, a kiddie pool, creativity, cooperation, and most importantly listening skills.   Congrats to the purple team who demonstrated listening and teamwork at its best.  This game was just what we needed on such a warm summer afternoon but it unfortunately signaled the end of our first day of camp – SO GLAD THERE ARE 9 MORE TO GO!