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Akron eighth-graders head to science contest in South Africa in June
By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal
Published on Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Akron's Satellite Girls are getting ready to go global.
The four Roswell Kent Middle School eighth-graders — Elizabeth Price, Julia Moyer, Ashley Falls, all 14, and Katelyn Jefferys, 13 — will depart June 19 for South Africa with a brief enroute stop in London.
''It's getting real close,'' said Julia of the upcoming trip.
The girls are bound for an international science competition June 22-28 in Cape Town that is expected to draw 300 students and 200 scientists and teachers from around the world.
Five American teams, including Akron's, qualified for the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Learning Expedition.
Roswell Kent science teacher Steven Frantz and Akron schools science coordinator Katrina Halasa will accompany the girls to the competition.
All four girls admit to a little nervousness as their 18-day trip approaches.
Only Ashley has ever been on a plane (that was when she was an infant), and they'll spend 191/2 hours in the air to get to South Africa.
Far more nervous are some of the parents and Frantz.
''I'm on pins and needles,'' he said. ''I feel like the mother hen. It's a big responsibility.''
The girl have had their immunizations, corresponded with South African students and picked up a few new clothing items for the trip.
They haven't started packing yet and must still choreograph a nine-minute dance routine to present in South Africa as part of the cultural exchange at the GLOBE event.
During the high-energy dance that includes snippets of 30 rock songs, Katelyn will wear Cleveland Browns clothing; Ashley, Cleveland Indians; Julia, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Elizabeth, Ohio State.
They must pack everything they need for their presentation, along with items to exchange with students from other countries at the conference. These include pins made from Ohio quarters and Roswell Kent shirts and pencils.
After the conference, they have been invited to remain in South Africa to stay with local students and their families and see a bit of the country. That will include a wildlife safari.
Climate project
For months, the girls have been fine-tuning their Power Point presentation on why urban areas like Akron are warmer in the winter than outlying areas are. The girls' extracurricular project, which began during the 2006-07 school year, is titled This Is Why I'm Hot.
It started after Frantz noted that snow lasts longer in Smithville, where he lives, than it does in Akron. That led his four former students to put together an investigative project.
They devised a hypothesis and developed a plan to measure ground-level temperatures in Akron and elsewhere. They used infrared-temperature-reader and global-positioning-system equipment and entered their temperatures in a national database. They tracked down supporting information and satellite images.
What they found was that urban areas with paved surfaces tend to be warmer than rural areas.
Their project was done largely as an in-school independent study by the girls supervised by Frantz.
It became their science fair project and was entered in state competition against high school projects. It came in fourth at the Students and Teachers Exploring Local Landscapes to Interpret the Earth from Space (SATELLITES) contest on April 20, 2007, at the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland.
That's when the Roswell Kent girls were dubbed the Satellite Girls, a nickname that has stuck.
They then turned that poster into a narrative report that described their research for the GLOBE competition, which is supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation.
Salute at Cavs game
The Satellite Girls have been honored by a host of Ohio politicians and school officials for winning the trip to South Africa. On April 13, they were saluted at a Cavaliers basketball game.
They have their own Web site on their project and monthly pod casts at http://web.mac.com/steven.frantz..
Today, the girls will get a $1,000 award from ClubZ! In-Home Tutoring Services at a meeting of the Akron Board of Education.
That will boost the funds for extending the trip, Frantz said. About $7,500 is needed, and the Satellite Girls are not quite there yet, he said.
GLOBE pays for airfare and lodging during the conference.
The extension is being subsidized by anonymous donors and sponsors, including Waterloo Transmissions, Beery's Laminating and Handel's Homemade Ice Cream.
On June 2, the girls will make a fundraising appearance from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Handel's store at 969 Copley Road.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.
Akron's Satellite Girls are getting ready to go global.
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