Astronomy Club Provides Scientific Enchantment For San Juan County 4-H’ers
By Betsy Fradd, WSU Extension 4-H
Maybe it’s the asteroids or, possibly, the nebula. For a group of kids in Friday Harbor the ever-changing solar system provides countless opportunities for discovery and delight.
“When you look at the sun through a telescope you see this big orange blob and some sun storms just spiraling around,” said 12-year old Yasmin Sarah. Now in her fifth year in the Sirius Dipper San Juan Island Astronomy 4-H club, Yasmin and other youth are learning about colors of stars, dwarf planets and comets.
Club leader Geneva Mottet is fascinated with the cosmos and provides year-round learning opportunities for students in elementary grades through high school.
“They are learning about planets, worm holes, moons, and galaxies and so much more,” said Mottet, an active astronomer for 12 years. “We go out with telescopes and look at stars. At least that is the plan. Normally drinking enormous amounts of hot cocoa and getting cold are also completed at outdoor meetings,” added Mottet.
Club member Aida Must likes to peer through the telescope to see what the sky holds. “I’ve seen one or two Horsehead nebula and they really just look like a blob of gas,” said the ten-year old who looks forward to studying more about Neptune.
Indoor meetings are spent learning different parts of astronomy, physics and the scientific method. Annual community service projects involve educating the public about something in astronomy or science related.
Mottet, a lab technician at the Friday Harbor Marine Labs, plans on finishing her degree in Astrobiology or Biomath with the eventual goal of becoming a phycologist, a scientist who studies algae, and work in biofuels or other energy technologies. Astronomy was the catalyst that sparked her interest in science.
“My hope for these kids is they will find that math and science are fun and kind of cool and consider it as a possible career,” said Mottet. “Technological and scientific literacy is so important. They can go into physics, engineering, aerospace, astronomy. So much is possible.”
Posted August 2012
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