Speaking of Lego and girls…
Last May, some Girl Scouts met with Obama to talk about a bridge.
Five girl scouts from Jenks met President Barack Obama to present their plan for a flood-proof bridge at the White House Science Fair.
The girls, 6-year-old Avery Dodson and 8-year-olds Natalie Hurley, Miriam Schaffer, Claire Winton and Lucy Claire Sharp of Girl Scout Troop 2612 built a model for the bridge based on the recent damaging floods in Estes Park, Colo. The girls are the only Girl Scouts in the nation at the fair.
The flood-proof bridge model the girls designed mechanizes the bridge with motors and gears in the correct ratios.
A computer program developed by the girls would cause the bridge to retract when flood conditions set in through a motion sensor in the river bed.
The fair was in June. It was in the news last week.
Ignoring his own stern warning to not “put stuff on your head if you’re president,” Obama donned a tiara while posing for a photo with Girl Scout Troop 2612, of Tulsa, Oklahoma. White House photographer Pete Souza shared the photo for the first time on Wednesday.
“Still editing 2014 Year in Photos. I may include this one even though it’s a posed photo,” Souza said on Instagram. “This is from the annual White House Science Fair. The kids from Girl Scout Troop 2612 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, convinced the President to wear a tiara with them for their group photo. The girls had exhibited a Lego flood proof bridge project.”
The White House Science Fair took place in June, and focused on girls and women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields who are inspiring the next generation of scientists.
Emphasis mine.
President-wearing-tiara photo was more widely seen than acknowledgment of girls’ science fair project.
Strictly speaking those were the only girl scouts there as girl scouts. Other girls at the fair may have been girl scouts.
BTW Space Cookies is a Girl Scout robotics team (or two)
at NASA Ames
http://frc.spacecookies.org/about-us/
http://vex.spacecookies.org/
according to a co-worker whose son is on a different team they are one of the hot shot teams.
Hey, while reading this series of posts, I remembered about this Research Institute Lego set that features women as scientists. One of the best things about this set is that it isn’t a “girls toy”; it’s a set about science and the three scientists just happen to be women.
It’s sold out on the Lego site and the notice seems to imply that there won’t be any more: “This set was overwhelmingly popular and is no longer available for purchase.” Upon further reading, it appears that this set was limited release. Seriously!?!?!?
Yeeeehaaaaaw,
I found it at the Canadian ToysRus, so I bought 2.