LAYTON — It all started four years ago when Becca Robison, then 10, told a 4-year-old neighbor girl that she wanted to be an astronaut when she grew up. "You can't do that," the little girl told her. "That's a boy's job."
Right then, Becca knew what she had to do. "Most of the girls I baby-sat spent their days twirling around in their leotards, dreaming of being dancers," she says. "They'd had no exposure to science."
Becca looked through her stack of science and space books for experiments, went to the crafts store to get materials, then invited all of the young girls in her neighborhood to the first-ever AstroTots Science Camp for Little Dippers — a daylong workshop about constellations, planets and rockets, held on a hot summer day in Becca's back yard.
"We made little planets out of Styrofoam balls," recalls Becca, now 14, "and I had them make Alka-Seltzer rockets. You put the seltzer into a film canister, fill it up halfway with water, put the lid on and shake it up. The top blows off just like a rocket. It's way cool."
The girls also used red clay to make Martian landscapes, complete with space aliens and astronauts. "I've found the key to helping kids learn is to offer a creative side and an educational side," says Becca, who shared her love for science at her Layton home during a recent Free Lunch chat. "So while they're learning that it's iron in the soil that makes Mars red, they're also having fun with space creatures. There's really no reason why science can't be fun."
Becca's AstroTots camp is now too popular to be held in her back yard; instead, camps are now held five times a year in community centers and parks. With help from teen volunteers, Becca now targets girls in poverty-stricken neighborhoods who otherwise might never get a chance to learn about astronomy and science. Besides AstroTots, she runs Love Bugs (a camp about insects) and Mad Female Scientists, which focuses on lab experiments. All three free camps are incorporated under her nonprofit group, "No Boundaries — Science Camps for Girls."
For her efforts, Becca has received numerous grants, honors and awards, including a meeting with President Bush at his second inauguration. Becca, who was invited to Washington, D.C., last year by Youth Service America to speak to other teens about the importance of service projects, recalls this about her meeting with the president, first lady Laura Bush and their two daughters:
"The president said he'd wished they'd had camps like mine when he was little," says Becca. She smiles. "I didn't dare remind him that my camp was just for girls."
Becca, the fourth of five children born to Neal Robison, an electrical engineer, and Susan Robison, a homemaker, developed an interest in astronomy and science early on, thanks in large part to her older brother, Jason.
On starry nights, Jason would take Becca outside with him, point out the constellations and explain the mythology behind them. "Growing up, I'd help him with all of his experiments," says Becca. "It's what really sparked my interest in space."
In the ninth grade at Clearfield Junior High, Becca maintains a 3.8 GPA. She plans to take early-entrance courses this fall at nearby Weber State University, so she can
get an early start on her dream to become one of the first astronauts on Mars.
Now gearing up for another season of summer camps, "It's worth all the work," she says, "just to see the look on a girl's face when she launches her first rocket. When you teach girls about exploring the stars and planets, it makes everything here on our own planet seem within reach."
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