March 2010 Discovery Day

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

Locate your pointer in the middle of the picture.  Click to enlarge it.
Use the web page back button to return the picture to its normal size.

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.

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

Back to Welcome Page