"Space Stories, photos inspire girls"
More than 500 middle-school girls in grades five through eight listened to the retired NASA astronaut tell amusing anecdotes about space travel that were accompanied by amazing photos during Saturday's Sally Ride Science, Ann Arbor Science Festival held on North Campus at the University of Michigan.
"I was 6 years old when (in 1957) the first satellite orbited the Earth," Sullivan told the girls.
Sullivan was picked by NASA in January 1978 and became an astronaut in August 1979. She served on three missions, the first in 1984, a second in 1990 and a third in 1992.
In 1990, she was part of the Space Shuttle Discovery crew, which helped launch the Hubble Space Telescope. Sullivan had logged over 532 hours in space upon her return to Earth following the third mission.
In fact, she said, it takes 90 minutes to make one lap around the Earth in the space shuttle. That meant she was able to witness 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets in an hour and a half. "You fly through every time zone on Earth in that time," she said.
Amy Aaron, 10, of Bloomfield Hills said, "I thought it was pretty interesting, what she had to say. Maybe I should become an astronaut."
Natalie Sanders, 12, of Brighton, said the pictures from the space shuttle were "cool."
"I like science and I thought the pictures she showed were really cool. I'd like to try and drink water in space," she said.
Her love of science, however, was a bit more philosophical. "Science includes other things. You can use it in whatever you want to be," she said.
Kelly Redmon, 12, also of Brighton, said, she, too, liked the funny pictures of the astronaut trying to drink water in zero gravity.
Both Gracie Valas, 11, and Veronika Olszewski, both of Ann Arbor, said they wanted to be veterinarians and were looking forward to a workshop about their chosen field.
Valas, a sixth-grader at Tappan Middle School, said she had been to the festival before.
"I like science and this is a great opportunity to hear about science from someone with a lot of experience," she said.
Olszewski, an eighth-grader at Tappan, said, "I also want to learn about being an astronaut. I think it will be fun," she said.
Sullivan's stories were filled with not only fun scientific information but also challenges to the girls in the audience to take science by the hand and embrace it as part of their everyday life.
Those attending the festival said they already knew science was cool and they were looking forward to learning more about it.
"I've liked science since I was a young girl. Besides, we are all science, too. Our bodies are science,'' said Shade James of Detroit.
Sally Ride Science was founded in 2001 by America's first woman astronaut in space. The organization strives to encourage girls in science, math and engineering. TOYchallenge, founded by Sally Ride, is designed to engage children in a fun engineering activity, in which teams create toys that are judged in a nationwide competition.
For more information about TOYchallenge, go to www.toychallenge.com and for more information about Sally Ride Science, go to www.sallyridescience.com.