Girl Scientists Club Chapter 3

I.

“Your mom tells me you’ve formed a Girl Scientists Club,” Amber’s dad said that evening at dinner. “I think that’s a great idea.”

“I think it will be really fun,” Amber agreed. “We’re going to help each other out in all our schoolwork, and make exhibits for science fairs, and everything.”

“And they both want to be paleontologists, like you?”

“No, Emily is going to be an astronaut, and Trelane is going to be an oceanographer.”

“Well, it’s nice to see how you are all set on your careers while you are so young,” said her dad with a smile. “It’s just too bad that the nearest ocean is hundreds of miles away, and the nearest observatory…” he paused to think. “Well, wait a minute, there’s an aquarium in Denver, I think. That should interest a would-be oceanographer. And I seem to recall seeing that there is an Astronomy Club here in Cheyenne…but there’s a historical observatory in Denver…”

Amber was looking at her dad excitedly. “Do you think you could take us to Denver to see the aquarium? And the observatory?”

“Well, we’ll have to talk it over with the other parents, of course, but I don’t see why not. What do you think, Mary?”

Amber’s mom nodded. “Why don’t we invite them all over for dinner…not tomorrow…how about Tuesday? We adults can get to know each other, and you girls can be down in the family room…”

“The Club Headquarters,” Amber said quickly.

“The Club Headquarters, of course, working on your projects.”

“Yay!” said Amber. “That will be great.”


II.

The next day, Sunday, the three members of the Girl Scientists Club met once again in the Club Headquarters.

“What my dad said last night got me to thinking,” Amber said. “We each have different ambitions. I want to be a paleontologist. Trelane wants to be an oceanographer. And Emily wants to be an astronaut. But we shouldn’t study our own field to the exclusion of all else. So what I was thinking was that we should each learn each other’s subjects as well. “

“Sure,” said Trelane, and Emily nodded.

“Dad’s going to take us to Denver to see the aquarium and the observatory – so that’s you two sorted out. So I was thinking we should go to the Wyoming State Museum this weekend, to see the dinosaurs. Have you been to the museum yet, Emily.”

“No…we really haven’t looked around Cheyenne at all,” said Emily Shimako.

“Well, then we’ll go on Saturday. I’ve been there a couple of times, and I’ll show you around. It’s pretty interesting. There’s more than just dinosaurs, of course. There’s history about the Indians and the early settlers, and there’s even kitchen stuff from the 1940s…and I’ve got to tell you it makes me glad to be living in the 2000s!

“There’s more we can do, too,” said Emily. “You know how every science has its own vocabulary. Why don’t we make a vocabulary work book, and every few days we share our new vocabulary words with each other.”’

“And we could have tests on the weekends,” said Trelane. “Just to make sure we remember what we’re learning.”

“And what about sport?” Trelane continued.

“What do you mean, what about sport?” laughed Amber.

“Well, if Emily is going to be an astronaut, she’s got to be physically fit, hasn’t she? And you are going to be out in the hot sun digging for fossils all day..but I bet you’ll have to be climbing up mountains in search of those fossils, so you need to be physically fit, too. And of course as an oceanographer I’m going to swim with whales and dolphins…”

“And sharks,” put in Emily with a shudder.

“And hopefully not very many sharks,” Trelane said with a grin. “So I was thinking we need to get into sports a bit, too, to keep fit. You can all come swimming with me, or we could go biking….”

“I think I’d prefer to go biking,” said Amber. “Swimming laps always seems kind of boring to me.”

“Well, biking then. Do you have a bike, Emily?”

“Not here,” said replied Emily. “Most of my stuff is still in Germany until my dad moves here.”

“But you know how to ride?”

“Oh, yes.”

“Well, no problem then. You can ride my mom’s bike. I know she won’t mind. As a matter of fact, shall we go for a ride right now? I’ve got an odometer on my bike, and that will tell us how far we ride. Let’s got for a five mile ride…two and a half miles out, and then two and a half miles back. Just to see how fit we are.”

“Let’s go,” said Emily, getting to her feet, and Trelane joined her.

“The Girl Scientists and Bicycling Club is now in session,” Trelane laughed.