Tuskegee, June 16-20, 2003

Drs. Kathleen Tate and Octavia Tripp, assistant professors in the College of Education's Department of Curriculum and Teaching, have joined forces to offer middle school girls in Tuskegee the chance to explore science in an exciting way June 16-20.

The two colleagues are sponsoring a week-long hands-on summer science camp for fifth, sixth and seventh grade girls called "TNT Interdisciplinary Summer Science Camp for Girls." The camp, which is sure to be "dynamite and out-of-sight," has a space theme. The girls will learn about rocketry, robotics and flight and aviation through a combination of activities.

The culminating event, which is free and open to the public, takes place Friday, June 20, from 1 to 3 p.m. during the award luncheon at Tuskegee Institute Middle School. The girls will perform skits for their family, friends and Auburn University representatives as well as the keynote speaker—former NASA astronaut and retired Navy pilot, Capt. Winston Scott.

"It's wonderful that Capt. Scott is speaking and sharing his experiences in space and discussing what it's like for his female colleagues to be in space," Tripp said. "We're excited and honored that he agreed to come and be the keynote speaker for our first summer science camp."

This initial camp is the first of an annual summer camp that will take place in a three year cycle. Tate and Tripp will invite the same group of middle school girls to participate in a summer camp for each of those three years. The professors will then do follow-up activities with the girls and their teachers during the school year.

For this first summer camp, Tate and Tripp decided to target three schools in Tuskegee—Tuskegee Public School, Washington Public School and Tuskegee Institute Middle School, which is where the camp is actually being held.

"The research shows there's a gap among achievement in terms of gender and race/ethnicity so we're trying to get the girls to build their self-esteem in science, increase their interest in science and, of course, increase their knowledge in science," Tate said. "We also want to expose them to careers and possibilities that they might not be aware of by bringing in role models in the field that they can identify with."

Throughout the week, the girls will get to know one another, play games, write in journals, perform in skits and take part in lessons based on one of the three topics, which will be taught be elementary and secondary science education majors from the college.

"The focus of this first summer camp is using NASA science experiments, but they're embedded in an interdisciplinary lesson, which means we integrate social studies, language arts, math, dance, drama and art with science," Tate said.

On Thursday, the girls will have the opportunity to meet two women who will share their experiences in flight and aviation and offer advice on how the girls might pursue a career in that field.

The first woman to speak is a local resident, Andrea VanBuren, who is a representative from the organization Women in Aviation. Later that afternoon, Sandra Campbell, who is part of the Federal Aviation Association, will perform a one-woman monologue called "Follow Your Dreams" on the life of Bessie Coleman, the first African-American woman to fly.

Tate and Tripp were able to offer this fun and dynamic summer science camp at no charge to the girls and their families because of funding from two research grants from Auburn University. The first grant was a $10,000 university-wide competitive research grant and the second was a $5,000 grant awarded by the Auburn University Office of Outreach.