A Girl Scout leaned down and peered into the eyepiece of a telescope focused on the moon in the night sky above Mercer University. After getting a good look, she bounded off to tell her troop leader about it.
“It was so cool!” she exclaimed. “We could see all the texture and dots.”
Nearly 30 Girl Scouts, with ages ranging from elementary to high school, spent two hours on a recent Friday night learning about space science from Mercer students and professors. Dr. Matt Marone, professor of physics, organized the Feb. 27 Reach for the Stars event as part of his community outreach initiatives with assistance from Dr. Frank McNally, associate professor of physics. Dr. Kerry Strickland, assistant professor of chemistry, also helped with one of the activities.
“There are so many people who have never looked into a telescope in their life,” he said. “I like to give them that opportunity.”
Viewing the moon and Jupiter through the telescope was among the girls’ highlights of the event, which also featured an outdoor, to-scale walk of the solar system. Inside the Science and Engineering Building, they rotated through various stations where they learned about telescope types, lenses and mirrors, spectra (detailed patterns of color), moon phases, and light beyond the spectrum.
The event gave Mercer students the opportunity to serve their community, and provided the Girl Scouts a chance to connect with women in science and engineering, Dr. Marone said. Students from the Society of Physics Students, Society of Women Engineers and Mercer Astronomy Club helped lead the activities.
Dr. Marone introduced the Girl Scouts to junior Rebecca Mullaly, who is president of the Society of Women Engineers at Mercer. A former Girl Scout now majoring in biomedical engineering, Mullaly told them how she fell in love with the field after a hands-on experience in middle school.
“I’ve always loved working out how things work,” she said.
Haley Hall, program manager for Girl Scouts of Historic Georgia Region 6, said having the girls learn about space science from Mercer professors and students was invaluable. Especially as the scouts get older, the work they need to complete to earn their badges gets harder.
“Because we are a volunteer-based organization, sometimes we have to find the experts,” she said.
