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Sally Ride to Speak at Science Festival on Fairfax Campus
By Joseph J. Urban III
Sally Ride, the first U.S. woman astronaut, will be the keynote speaker at the National Capital Science Festival, held at the Concert Hall on the Fairfax Campus on Saturday, May 11. The festival will run from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and will coincide with a street fair on the plaza between the Concert Hall and Mason Hall.
The National Capital Science Festival is organized by the Sally Ride Science Club, a national organization open to upper elementary and middle school girls, which supports them in their exploration of the universe of science and technology.
"Studies show that in elementary school, roughly the same amount of girls and boys are interested in science and math. But beginning around the sixth grade, more girls than boys drift away from these subjects," says Ride. "We created the Sally Ride Science Club to support the large numbers of girls who are interested in technical fields by connecting them to each other, to female role models, and to their own source of engaging content and activities. Our community science festivals provide a way for these connections to be made on a personal level."
The May 11 festival will offer 23 discovery workshops for young girls. Many George Mason professors will speak at the various workshops, including Deborah Boehm-Davis, Psychology; Sheryl Beach, Geography and associate provost for general education; Cheryl Bartholomew, Women's Studies; Shobita Satyapal, Physics and Astronomy; Rita Sambruna, Physics and Astronomy; Anne Marchant, Computer Science; Joy Hughes, vice president for information technology; and Avrama Blackwell, School of Computational Sciences.
Beach and Tom Hennessey of the President's Office, along with the Sally Ride Science Club, are cosponsoring and coorganizing the event. "The Graduate School of Education [GSE] has also played a large part in the organization of the event," says Beach "especially Dean Jeff Gorrell and Senior Associate Dean Martin Ford, who have stepped up to help organize GSE faculty and students. The faculty gave us a warm reception when we introduced the concept. The response was overwhelmingly positive and supportive. I'm very proud of our Mason faculty and administrators for this response and for how deeply they care about this issue."
The festival will also feature three lectures for adults, which will cover
gender equity, hands-on family science, and preparing daughters for college. The
deadline for advance registration for the festival is Thursday, May 9, at 5 p.m.;
on-site registration will begin at 8 a.m. on Saturday, May 11. Advance registration
is $15; on-site registration is $20. To register online, visit www.SallyRideFestivals.com.
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