Message from our Executive Director - Marching Ahead to Summer
While spring is almost here, we have summer on our minds! Based on the promising progress in the roll-out of vaccines, we are getting ready for an all-new and exciting summer. We are eager to provide children and youth with safe, fun, and meaningful experiences with their peers, helping them catch up on STEM content and social-emotional skills. We will offer camp programs, both in-person at the Lab and virtual, as well as serving other organizations who offer camps by bringing our mobile and virtual programs to them.
Special for this summer, the entire Lab will be dedicated to summer campers on weekdays and focused on serving members and families on the weekends. Summer camps are open for registration now, as are spring break camps. We will share more details about summer family programs later this spring!
Nene Spivy (3/11/2021)
When will there be more Volunteer Opportunities Available?
As Nene noted in her March message, she and staff are working on plans to safely open the Lab this summer. The Volunteer team continues to work with staff to find ways we can once again engage our awesome volunteers and will share/post them to the Galaxy Digital site, as well as in upcoming blogs, spotlights and emails.
We appreciate your interest in supporting our mission to inspire a love of learning STEM by providing unique opportunities to explore and create. We hope to have some more news about volunteer shifts over the coming months and look forward to seeing you safely in person.
Do not hesitate to contact volunteer@childsci.org if you have any questions.
Families are welcome to join this free virtual event and a fun way to learn more about the Earth! Designed for ages 4-12. Join in the fun, play a game, and maybe you will win the free STEM at Home Kit!
For more information on how to register: Link
Save the Date - Celebrating Science Watch Party
Help us celebrate STEM, science centers, and the big reveal of Northern Virginia's new science center.
- Thursday, May 20, 2021
- 5:00-5:30 pm Premiere Program Broadcast
More information and an invitation for your friends and colleagues to join you virtually for this special event will be coming soon.
Volunteer Highlight - The Youth Advisory Board (YAB)
Volunteer. Lead. Collaborate.
A team of Innovative, Entrepreneurial and Passionate High School Students from Fairfax and Loudoun Counties. They work to forward the Children's Science Center's mission and vision through high school student volunteerism, leadership and collaboration. This month we will introduce you to the 4 members who are currently in 10th grade.
Tanju Bhat is a 10th grader at Chantilly High School. The scientist he most admires is the English Scientist and inventor, Michael Faraday, who discovered that the properties of electromagnets were crucial for the creation of the basic electric motor. Not only is his personal story fascinating, but his discovery is used for almost everything we use today - including kitchen appliances, car engines, and electricity generation.
As someone who loves engineering and technology, the concept of computers and their CPUs (Core Processing Units) has always fascinated Tanuj. It has been predicted that the limit of a CPU's computing power and speed are quickly reaching capacity, as the speed of an electron moving through matter limits the speed of a CPU. This limit is without taking into consideration the efficiency of the program being run on the processor. He would like to know if and when this limit will be reached.
Sara Huffman is a 10th grader at Chantilly High School who enjoys Computer Science. She greatly admires Katherine Johnson, who was an African American scientist that performed calculations which allowed humans to successfully achieve space flight. She worked for NASA and was portrayed in the popular movie Hidden Figures.
Sara has always been curious about why we dream and hopes to see a cure for cancer in her lifetime.
Sonika Modur is a 10th grader that splits time between her home school, Lightridge High School and the Academy of Science (AOS) in Loudoun County. She admires Marie Curie for her relentless passion towards research and discovery. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. Sonika likes this famous Marie Curie quote about the galvanizing nature of curiosity: "Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less."
Sonika enjoys Computer Science and would like to know if there are signs of life on Europa, one of Jupiter's Galilean moons. Scientists believe it must have a subsurface ocean, which may be teeming with signs of life.
Sammy Smith is a 10th grader at Chantilly High School who enjoys studying Biology. She admires Rosalind Franklin because her work contributed to one of the major breakthroughs in science. Her X-ray photographs of DNA contributed greatly to Watson and Crick's discovery of the double helix. Sammy feels that Rosalind Franklin should have also received the Nobel prize.
Sammy has always wanted to know what caused the Big Bang and would like for it to be answered in her lifetime.
See previous blogs to learn about these members. In the October blog, we introduced the Co-Chairs, Sarah Ali and Justin Burke, as well as the Vice Chair, Namitha Kapa. In the November blog, we introduced the 5 returning members from Fairfax County schools. In the December blog, we introduced the 3 returning members from Loudoun County schools. In January, we introduced the 5 members who are in 9th grade.
