The Future Women of Science and Space Exploration

After the dead of  Sally Ride, the first American woman in space,here is what Rebecca Spyke Keiser voices: "On a recent sunny southern California day this fall, over 1,500 girls of all ages and their families participated in the Girl Scouts of America’s science festival on the mall at the California Institute of Technology. 

Sally Ride
Several personnel from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) hosted a technology “petting zoo,” where the girl scouts - and their families - were able to try out emerging information technologies, ranging from 3D technologies, energy efficient devices, eBooks, space simulation games, walking on the moon on an iPad, educational games for tablet computers, and much more. NASA’s JPL is located at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, and performs a wide range of space science, robotics, and Earth science research for the agency.

Checkout many of the educational games that were sampled at the JPL's petting zoo on NASA’s “space place” website at http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/games.shtml. 

The hands-on exploration proved to be a highly entertaining and an effective way of introducing the girls to emerging technologies and gaining feedback on how they would use it. The NASA/JPL team was extremely impressed with the questions, the level of interest, and the expertise displayed by the girls.

Members from NASA’s Office of the Chief Information Officer said the event was, “a terrific success and hopefully excited the girl scouts to become future women of science and NASA/JPL space explorers.” 

Rebecca Spyke Keiser, Associate Deputy Administrator for Policy Integration at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.