MOTHER/DAUGHTER MATH/SCIENCE DISCOVERY DAY
A Hands on Learning Experience Sponsored by the
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY WOMEN
FREMONT, CA
February 27 Discovery Day a Huge Success!
By Shirley Gilbert
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Sporting AAUW Fremont Branch hats, (left to right) Mary Lynn Pelican, three Tech Trek graduates and Kathy Garfinkle top the wonderful day with beautiful smiles.
Miriam Keller smiles with a sense of wonder when she recalls that she has been involved in a total of 21 Discovery Days.
She’s been part of this semi-annual math and science motivational activity for girls since its AAUW Fremont Branch inception in 1995.
At first Miriam worked under the direction of another leader but she took on the chairmanship of this much looked-forward-to Fremont AAUW program since 1998.
Miriam reported that this year’s Discovery Day held on Saturday, February 27 was a great success.
“We had a total of 84 girls from over 20 schools in the area and each of the girls had a female adult accompanying them. That’s over 160 people…quite a crowd really. But it all went really well.”
The idea of the classes for girls and their adult companions at Hopkins Jr. High is to provide a day of fun, hands-on math and science experience for third and fourth grade girls. There’s a planetarium show, they tackle tangrams (Chinese puzzles), use pennies to measure the load that their bridge can support, find the pH of many household and kitchen items with red cabbage juice, make a bar of soap and see if they did a good job of washing their hands. They also put together electrical circuits, explore vibrations including those that are used in musical instruments, devise secret messages to send to friends and learn enough about levers that they can lift their mothers using only one hand. Then there’s those gravity defying frogs …
“Mothers and adults,” said Miriam, “also get a lot out of it. They learn ways to motivate girls in math and science that they can use at home.”
Miriam admitted she couldn’t do this without the help of many AAUW assistants – one for every class. This year three former Tech Trek graduates helped in the classrooms as well.
So why does Miriam take on the leadership of this ambitious project year after year?
“I do it,” said Miriam, “because it’s so necessary. And my concern is if I don’t do it, it won’t take place. That would be a great loss for the girls, who really love it.”
Every year, Miriam asks the participants to fill out an evaluation of how the day went for their girls. There are suggestions for tweaks in the program but, for the most part, parents are thankful that such a fun-filled day exists, thanks to AAUW Fremont Branch.
“My daughter,” said one typical reply, “really enjoyed all the classes. Very hands-on is the key to her interest level. Good job!”
And from the heart of Fremont AAUW, thank you Miriam for 21 special Discovery Days!
Go see the girls for yourself!
We thank the following supporters for their help:
| Donors | Presenters |
| Alameda County Water District | Yvonne Alexander, Planetarium, FUSD |
| Fremont Environmental Services Dept. | Quata Ocano, LED Engineering |
| Aquarium of the Bay | Janice Longo, AAUW |
| Bay Area Discovery Musueum | Lexi Rohrman, Mad Science |
| Lawrence Hall of Science | Kimberle Kieft, AAUW |
| The Lindsey Wildlife Museum | Ninette Pierce, AAUW |
| The Children’s Discovery Museum | Filiz Crocker, AAUW |
| Our Hospitality Team | Lalitha Srinivasan, FUSD |
| Liz Poe | Martha Crowe, AAUW |
| Alison Kieft | Radicka and Ritwicka Mitra, IHS |
| Kathy Bray | Assistants |
| Kathy Scrivani | AAUW Branch Members |
| Our Registration Team | Mary Fuchs |
| Elin Thomas | Donna Keller |
| Anne Macleod | Jo Szeto |
| Harriet Despeaux | Colleen Marron |
| Also | Kathy Garfinkle |
| Janice Logo – “Folders” | Rita Hammer |
| Kathy Bray – “Door Prizes” | Judy Huff |
| Erin Snider – “Emcee and Bells” | Tech Trek Graduates |
| Katlan Cummings | |
| Emily Holmes | |
| Vanuyen Pham |