August 16, 2004

At age 13, Becca Robison is already an experienced day-camp director who has shared her enthusiasm for science and space flight with some 300 young girls in Utah.

The camp, Astrotots: Space Camp for Little Dippers, started in Becca's backyard with neighborhood girls. Since then, it has grown so fast that Becca now holds the one-week sessions at AstroCamp where Becca first formed her own dream of becoming an astronaut, at age 11.

Astrotots grew directly out of that dream. When Becca started telling people in her life, including little girls she baby-sat for, that she wanted to be an astronaut, she got a lot of different reactions. The girls laughed at her and told her that astronaut was a boy's job. "Can you believe that? I mean for heaven's sake, Sally Ride went into space 21 years ago," says Becca.

She decided these young girls in her neighborhood needed to be exposed to science and technology jobs, so they would feel as though they could do them when they got older. This is when she decided to start her camp.

Astrotots is free, running for two hours each morning in one-week sessions. Girls from 4 to 10 come to explore the exciting world of science. Becca says she has moms from all over call her and ask to be in the camp. The only reason Becca ever says no is when they don't have the funds.

Each two-hour session is packed with activities, a new one every 15 minutes or less—perfect, says Becca, for the short attention spans of her young campers. One favorite activity is when the girls create their own planets out of Styrofoam balls, CD's, paint, glue and glitter. (Good picture of this on the web site)

Becca and her volunteers usually prepare about 10 activity stations for 25 girls each day. Each station has individual kits with all the needed supplies for each girl to do the activity. Putting together the kits is a huge job, Becca says. She spends about two weeks' worth of evenings preparing the kits with help from her mom. Becca knows when an activity is effective, because if the kids don't enjoy it, they don't do it!

Most of the volunteer staff members are previous campers who are now too old for Astrotots but want to help keep the camp going for younger girls. Becca says she is very careful about who she allows to work with the children, and is very concerned about safety. She hopes to see Astrotots continue to grow and expand, and would like to offer more camps, including one all about bugs, and another with the title "Mad Female Scientist."

If you want to learn more about it or donate to her camp, go to http://www.astrotots.org.