Sally Ride Festival a Grand Success!

Over 1400 middle school students and 300 adults came to Rice on October 27, 2007 for an action-packed street fair with experiments, food, music, and fun; a chance to meet and listen to the first woman pilot of a Space Shuttle and the first woman Shuttle commander, Eileen Collins; and exciting workshops given by women ranging from veterinarians to aerospace engineers. Major sponsors included Deloitte and the Rice Space Institute. Other sponsors included the Wiess School of Natural Science and Brown School of Engineering (both headed by women); the energy forum of the Baker Institute; the Physics and Astronomy Department; Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Houston – Downtown. Over 400 of the students were sponsored by Rice, and another 100 by Deloitte. The fest was the second annual Sally Ride Science Festival held at Rice, to encourage middle school girls towards careers in STEM careers (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), and is their largest Festival ever. Last year Sally Ride was the featured speaker.

The keynote speaker was Eileen Collins, who gave an inspirational talk, challenging girls to learn and answering many questions.

For the full webcast of her talk, go to the rice webcast server.

A special feature was a message from Peggy Whitson from the International Space Station. A Rice University PhD in Biochemistry, she is the first woman ISS commander. To view her message to the girls as a quicktime movie (50 MB), click here. To watch it as a smaller-format mp4 movie, click here. For a podcast version, click here.

We have gotten lots of positive feedback from girls, teachers, presenters, and parents. Here is a quote from a parent: “my daughter was captivated by her workshops; she spent the rest of the evening extracting DNA from anything that wasn't nailed down, and has lectured me on zebrafish genetics until I run away screaming. In other words, the event had exactly the desired effect on at least one fifth-grade girl. Hopefully several hundred others as well!”

For a link to the Houston Chronicle story, click here.

	The street fair included booths, activities, balloons, and the very popular Discovery Dome, which transports students into a virtual tour into space. The Discovery Dome is a partnership of the Rice Space Institute and the Houston Museum of Natural Science. It is available for rentals in the Houston area through HMNS and for sale through a Rice spinoff company, E-Planetarium.
	Each student chose two of 36 women-led workshops on a number of exciting topics, including DNA, astromaterials, water, life sciences, and the Sun. This image is of Dr. Carolyn Sumners talking about building for space. She is showing a video of ISS astronauts working in space.

Many thanks to our presenters, volunteers, and supporters! We couldn’t do it without you!

Patricia Reiff, Director, Rice Space Institute.