Sally Ride Remembered

Dr. Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, died yesterday at the age of 61. Ride went to space twice, in 1983 and 1984. And besides doing experiments and tests high above the earth, she became a hero to all Americans — men and women, kids and adults.

Ride was also a role model for young people — especially girls — who wanted to become an astronaut some day. She showed what it takes to go to space, and after she retired from NASA she committed herself to preparing future generations of space explorers and scientists. She wrote nine books aimed at kids about space and science, and in 2001 she founded Sally Ride Science to educate and support kids' interest in science, math, and technology.

In 2010, Kid Reporter Mariam El Hasan interviewed Sally Ride at Education Nation in New York about the importance of science and math education. Ride also shared her advice for kids who might want to be an astronaut someday.

Watch Mariam's interview below, and let us know in the comments what Sally Ride and her accomplishments mean to you.

 

—Editor Dante A. Ciampaglia

Motivating girls to get into STEM

"It's young people like you that make me so confident that America's best days are still to come," President Barack Obama said as he addressed the young scientists assembled at the White House. President Obama's address was delivered via video.

It's April 24, and a crowd of mostly girls and some adults gathered at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Building to attend the "Girls in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)" event. 

Four amazing and inspirational women were the panelists at the event: Dr. Cady Coleman, NASA Astronaut and Colonel; Jocelyn Goldfein, Facebook's Director of Engineering; Bianca Bailey, resident of Howard University's Chapter of Engineers Without Borders; and Jean Hernandez, President of Edmonds Community College Jean Hernandez.

The four women shared their experiences and knowledge to motivate young girls to pursue a STEM careers, jobs in which women are traditionally under-represented. They also answered questions from the audience and the listeners on the Internet. Other people who voiced their encouragement and support were the 2012 White House Science Fair participants. They also spoke to the group at the STEM event through video. And they all voiced in support for girls to excel at a field in STEM careers. 

"What I would say to all people — especially girls — who are interested in STEM activities is that you should do it," one participant said.

"Just go out there and get to work and do it," another competitor added. "I mean, there are infinite possibilities. You could do anything you want. Being a woman doesn't matter with anything." 

"When I was a kid I asked a lot of 'why' questions, and I found that science and math usually were the coolest answers to all of my 'why' questions," an attendee said.

In an interview with the Scholastic News Kids Press Corps, Dr. Coleman said that empowering curious young minds — especially women and minorities — is the only way to continue our progress.

"STEM is going to be a part of everyday life," Dr. Coleman said. "You're going to need it to become a citizen of the planet. If they're hard for you, then just realize that you might have to spend a little more time on it, but they're very necessary."

For more of my interview with Dr. Cady Coleman, check out the Scholastic News Kids Press Corps website!

—Kid Reporter Alexandra Zhang

Photo: Kid Reporter Alexandra Zhang interviews astronaut Dr. Cady Coleman at the White House on April 24. (Photo courtesy White House)

World of Work Revealed

If there is any day that you can actually know and understand what your parents do at work, it has to be "Take Your Sons and Daughters to Work Day" at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C., or the IMF.

"This is a special day where parents invite you, their daughters and sons, to where they go to work every day," Ms. Christine Legarde, the Managing Director/"big big boss" at the IMF, said as she addressed an anticipating crowd of kids. "This is the first time, and I am really looking forward to this."

Today, April 26, 2012, was the IMF's first day reserved for kids. There were programs printed out, decorations on the walls, offices transformed into daycares for the younger kids, and conference rooms reserved for the older ones. "There are lots of people that do all sorts of different jobs," said Ms. Legarde. "You will hear the economists, nurses, security officers, cooks, kindergarten staff, lawyers, accountants, secretaries, computer experts, video experts, cinematographers — we have the whole range of jobs you can think of."

In my mom's department in the IMF, the OIA, or the Office of Internal Audit, there were 13 kids in total. Nine of them were 2 to 6 years old, and four of them (including me) were 7 to 12 years old. That amount of kids, however, was nothing compared to amount of kids from all the departments.

In total, there were about 500 kids in all of the branches in the IMF. All of us gathered at 8:30 in the morning in a huge conference hall for breakfast, but still not everyone could fit, so they ended up having the adults stand along both sides of the wall so all the kids could have a place to sit.

After breakfast, all the kids split up, according to their parents' respective departments, and to their floor. I, along with three other kids in the OIA, met up in a very professional looking — complete with the chairs — conference room and discussed what the OIA was like with the Deputy Director of the department, Mr. Daniel Nelson. He talked to us about what the OIA does, what the IMF is about, how it started, how the internal auditors get chosen, and the different jobs in the IMF.

Following the "lecture,” we got to interview some of the OIA staff about what they do at work. We interviewed four staff members: Ms. Stephanie Reisinger, Ms. Bee Lim, Mr. Leo Croppo, and the Director of the OIA, Mr. Russell Kincaid. When asked about what they liked most about working in the OIA – besides being the "police" making sure all departments of IMF follow proper rules — most said that they like the people in the department, and the amount of travel (they all said that they traveled too much in previous jobs/departments).

As a special treat to end the day, my mom took all four of us to an ice-cream shop in D.C., called the Cone-e-Island. What a perfect end, right? Not really. When we came back, everyone was sugar high and everyone except for my mom and I started bouncing off the wall.

Today was a really fun day! I learned a lot and had a lot of fun at the same time.

—Kid Reporter Alexandra Zhang

Photo: Christine Legarde, the Managing Director of the IMF, welcomes kids to Take Your Sons and Daughters to work day at the IMF. (Courtesy Alexandra Zhang)

Youth Lead the Change: Day 3

Editor’s note: Sawyers Ames is an eighth-grader at Watertown Middle School in Massachusetts. At the end of August, she attended a new camp run by The Leadership Institute at Harvard University for Boston-area kids in 7th through 10th grades. The purpose of the free camp, Youth Lead the Change!, was to help find the next generation of leaders and to give them some tools to speak out and learn how to make a difference.

The following is Sawyer’s look at her third day at the leadership camp.

***

I look down at the booklet in my hands warily. Letting out a sigh — three speakers? If they aren’t good, then this day is going to be painful.

And the first hour certainly is. My “action” team works on digging back to the root cause of childhood obesity. This was what our speaker came to talk about. She works at a nonprofit group working with schools to help students become more physically fit.

Now, what we had done so far in the week was really about presenting and thinking of yourself as a leader. It was relatively obvious that this woman had not ever taken part in such a thing. Shoulders rolled forward, very quiet voice, monotone, looking at her feet. I almost fell asleep at 9:30 in the morning.

The rest of the morning and early afternoon passes relatively quickly, with little preps here are there for the final presentation we would do the next afternoon. Right after lunch, a Harvard Business School student shows us a PowerPoint on leadership through community service. Her example is as a high school student, trying to get a law passed in Delaware prohibiting smoking in public places. I am happy to report that I have no trouble staying wide awake during this!

We take a small break to do some non-leadership activities. What a relief! Then back to our seats for — wait for it — yet another speaker!

Zeynep Ton had been a professor at Harvard Business School until switching just this summer to MIT. The premise of her talk is to let us know that every single job is important. To put everything in perspective, she uses her apple. And we trace that apple all the way from where it had been grown in New Zealand to the little market where she bought it in the heart of Boston.

The way she shows us all of this was interactive, with a joke and a question here and there. I swear almost everyone in the room genuinely wants to pay attention.

(Photo: Courtesy John Vitti) 

Youth Lead the Change: Day 2

Editor’s note: Sawyers Ames is an eighth-grader at Watertown Middle School in Massachusetts. At the end of August, she attended a new camp run by The Leadership Institute at Harvard University for Boston-area kids in 7th through 10th grades. The purpose of the free camp, Youth Lead the Change!, was to help find the next generation of leaders and to give them some tools to speak out and learn how to make a difference.

The following is Sawyer’s look at her second day at the leadership camp.
 

***

The big event in the morning is our first speaker for the day. Kathy Delaney-Smith, the head women’s basketball coach at Harvard University. She practically runs into the room, grinning, and telling us that all embarrassment needed to go “out the door” when she is speaking.

“If I ask you if you have a boyfriend or a girlfriend, you’re going to tell me!” she says with a wink and a grin.

The class bursts out laughing and rushes to agree with her. You don’t usually get an adult wanting to hear about that kind of stuff, you know?

As she talks, she tells us about the Five C’s of Leadership: commitment, composure, character, communication, and confidence. The premise of her talk is to let us know that if we want to be a leader, we really have to want it. We really have to want to work for it, and let other people know that we have what it takes. She is a perfect example, and I think we all find the hour with her inspiring, interactive, and interesting. As she leaves the room, she shouts out her team’s mantra: “Don’t just survive — ATTACK!”

***

It is soon time for an opening activity for our final project! In our groups, we were each given a mini case study. Mine is on childhood obesity. We work on tracing to the root cause of obesity in children. There isn’t just one, so the one my group and I choose to look at is advertising. Next time you’re watching TV, think about how many commercials there are for fast-food restaurants, and then look at how many there are for places such as Whole Foods. Many people don’t notice this, but once you look for it, I promise you’ll notice a huge difference.

***

“Please welcome Ranjay Gulati!” Kara squeals. We all clap as the Harvard Business School professor steps up to the podium.

“Thank you, thank you! Today, I will be focusing on leadership in relation to root causes. This is what you have been working on, no?”

There are murmurs of agreement from all of us, and he begins the presentation. It is a wonderfully made PowerPoint with videos here and there. One of the videos includes Domino’s pizza! They had been getting numerous complaints about their cheese seeming fake and the crust tasting worse than cardboard. (How these people knew what cardboard tasted like, I don’t know.) Domino’s was unhappy that its pizza was not pleasing people, but the company didn’t push the comments away saying that the customers were the problem. Domino’s looked at itself, and tried to see what it was doing wrong and how it could be fixed. Eventually, a new sauce was created with new crust. The very same people who had said the pizza was horrible LOVED IT! Domino’s fixed its problem by tracing the root cause.

These types of examples from Professor Gulati really get us going, inspire us, and I think he is definitely to thank for how wonderfully the week turned out!

(Photo: Harvard women's basketball coach Kathy Delaney-Smith (Courtesy John Vitti))

Youth Lead the Change: Day 1

Editor’s note: Sawyers Ames is an eighth-grader at Watertown Middle School in Massachusetts. At the end of August, she attended a new camp run by The Leadership Institute at Harvard University for Boston-area kids in 7th through 10th grades. The purpose of the free camp, Youth Lead the Change!, was to help find the next generation of leaders and to give them some tools to speak out and learn how to make a difference.

The following is Sawyer’s look at her first day at the leadership camp.

***

“I’m going to Harvard! We’re going to Harvard!” I screech, grabbing Julia’s forearm as the two of us walk through Wigglesworth Hall. I think it goes without saying that I am excited, but with every step I take closer to Emerson Hall, it feels more like butterflies. Big, hyper, flapping butterflies in my stomach.

“Name?” one of the undergrads running the program asks me.

“Sawyer.”

“Sawyer Ames?”

“Yes.”

“Great! Right through those doors, and it’s your first room on the right!” she says with an enormous smile.

I nod and follow her directions. I find myself in what looks like a mini auditorium. I’m immediately taken aback. “Give Me Everything Tonight,” is coming out of the speakers, and all of the teachers are milling around. They’re really the only ones that look comfortable in this setting. All of the kids sit in black chairs, bags perched on their laps. Some make small talk with others next to them. Even some smiles! Gasp! But most of them stare straight ahead.

***

It’s around five minutes before Kara bounds into the room. She claps her hands loudly and the music comes to a stop.

“Who am I?” she asks us with a gleam in her eye. We’re puzzled. She jumps up on the platform and writes the question on the board before whirling back around to face us. “That’s the question for today! We are going to find out what kind of leaders we all are! But first — we gotta break the ice! Come on! Follow me!”

Fifty-five kids with awkward smiles and wary looks get up and hitch their bags over their shoulders. Kara leads us into the yard next to Emerson. We’re instructed to get in a circle, and one by one, run to the middle and shout our name and school. We do, and by the end, everyone is laughing at how over-the-top some people made their statement. Who would’ve thought something like that could be fun?

We play a few other games, team-building kinds of things, and then filter back in pumped up from the start to our morning. We have a short break and some people socialize. I’m not one of those people.

***

“Are you ready for the PATH OF LIFE, everyone?” Gabe (another one of the counselors) jumps into the middle of the hallway.

We look up, startled, and he tells us to divide into our groups. There’s a lot of inspecting name-tags to see which color group we were placed in, as well as numerous sympathetic glances between friends as they move into rooms opposite each other. I was in blue. No one else I knew that well was, but hey, no big deal.

The Path of Life ends up being pretty much just that. We are all given a sheet of paper, and a pen. The activity is to draw a line, with ups and downs corresponding with how your life has been so far. Then label them, and make a symbol representing the event or what it meant to you. The only real dip in my line was the sixth grade. My trip to Morocco and seventh grade were pretty much straight up!

The rest of the afternoon passes by quickly with more team-building trust games and a break or two. With about an hour and a half left before dismissal, we are all given a small quiz. “Leadership Compass” was the title at the top of the page.

I end up being north and south: North meaning I was controlling and liked to be in charge. South meaning I was creative, and a visionary. Pretty accurate.

(Photo: Gabe Lloyd is the Assistant Chair of the Leadership Development Initiative (courtesy John Vitti))

Critical Thinking on the Football Field

Learn first, block a lineman second, says Roger Goodell

The panel was called “The Parents and the Village: Fostering a Learning Culture in our Communities." Quite a big subject, with some even bigger names on the panel.

Included were Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York; Roger Goodell, NFL Commissioner; and Russell Simmons, music producer. They discussed the importance of parents being more involved in their children’s schools.

After the panel, Goodell took a minute to talk to me about education and athletes. He told me as a child he wanted to be in the NFL and his dream came true because he never lost sight of his goals and worked hard to achieve them.He really wanted to be a football player but in the end decided not to.

"I do still play football,” he said. “I played football with my two 9-year old daughters over the weekend. You can play football in different fashions. It's a great way to get active.”

Click on the play button to find out what Goodell had to say when I asked him about the importance of athletes getting a good education AND what athletes need to know on the field. It isn't all about size and speed.

—Kenny Figueroa

VIDEO: Courtesy Scholastic, Inc.

Blackberries For School

No, not the kind you eat! This BlackBerry is an educational tool.

He wouldn’t say much about the PlayBook, a new competitor of the iPad, but David Neal, the technical expert for Research in Motion, had a lot to say about BlackBerries and education.

Research in Motion is the company that makes BlackBerry phones. His company gave a Blackberry Torch to every participant at the NBC Education Nation conference in New York this week.

He talked to Kid Reporter Kenny Figueroa about the Torch, which is a cell phone/computer with a touch screen. He expects it will soon be a necessary tool for students both in and out of the classroom.

The Playbook, which was revealed to the world at a press conference on the west coast yesterday, is still a mystery. Neal wouldn’t discuss price or functions, and he certainly wouldn’t compare it to the iPad when asked!

Check it out by clicking on the play button above.

VIDEO: Scholastic Inc.

Can U.S. Students Compete?

Why are other, less rich and productive countries, do so much better with education?

Students in Finland get better grades on reading, science, and math than every other country in the world. Finland also has shorter school days and there is no such thing as a failing school.

The drop out rate in Finland is less than 1 percent, but it is 25 percent in the United States of America.  Education experts at the NBC Education Nation conference in New York this week say we have to catch up! I agree and so does Sir Ken Robinson.

Robinson talked to me after his panel discussion on Study Abroad: We can we learn from the global leaders in education? The author of The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, Robinson stressed the need for a better balance between science and art curriculum. This current generation of students should be able to make better use of technology in schools, he said.

He also talked about what he called the "three myths of creativity."

“The three myths of creativity are that only certain people are creative," he said. "I believe that’s not true, I believe everybody is creative and has great creative abilities."

I go to a Performing Arts school and I agree that creativity is important.

I also spoke to David Livermore, a senior research consultant at the Cultural Intelligence Center. He said that if he can change one thing in education, he would try to find a better connection with parents and students.

He also said that students can increase their cultural intelligence just by traveling. I think it is crucial to understand other cultures so we can discover the inspirations all around us.

To hear my conversation with Sir Robinson, click on the play button below.

—Cecilia Gault

VIDEO: Courtesy Scholastic Inc.

Parents, Get Involved!

Kids do better in school when parents take an interest.

The NFL commissioner, the daughter of a former President, a TV show host, an archbishop and a fashion mogul all came together today to discuss one thing they all agree on: Parents can make a difference in their children's education.

A panel on parental participation at NBC’s Education Nation in New York this week included Cheryl Hines, actress and host of the new TV show School Pride; Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York; Caroline Kennedy, author and daughter of President John F. Kennedy; and Roger Goodell, NFL Commissioner.

Goodell said he is concerned about helping kids stay healthy and active.

“Children that are active are better students,” he told the Scholastic Kids Press Corps.

Also active students need a good school building to work in. Hines said that the teachers and students couldn’t work at their best if the working environment is in a poor state. Her new TV show focuses on how much difference a clean and upgraded school can make.

Caroline Kennedy brought up this point: Children can do better if the parents help.

“It’s hard to be a student today and do your best, because there are a lot of things competing for your attention,” she said.

“Students have to remember that the work they put in and the effort they put in will pay off in the long run.”

—Cecilia Gault

VIDEO: Scholastic Inc.