MORGANTOWN — Emily Calandrelli gave a delighted laugh when she saw the look on the kid’s face after the Alka-Seltzer rocket shot upward.
“Whoa,” the youngster said, with moon-sized eyes.
Calandrelli’s reply quickly followed, in that same trajectory.
“I know,” said the internationally known advocate of all things outer space. “Pretty cool, huh?”
That unequivocal “cool” factor of science — such as how an earthbound bottle of water can actually go airborne using sodium bicarbonate as fuel — was why Calandrelli was back in her hometown of Morgantown on a hot Sunday afternoon.
Well, it was a big part of the mission, anyway.
At WVU, Calandrelli earned a degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering and studied abroad in Turkey.
She also holds graduate degrees in aeronautics, astronautics and technology and policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
You can see her on television as the host and producer of “Xploration Outer Space” on the FOX network.
When she isn’t doing that, she also works with TV’s Bill Nye (the Science Guy) while traveling the world and giving TED talks on the importance of young people taking up careers in STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.
Oh, yeah — she writes kids’ books, too.
That’s the main reason she was back home Sunday.
The Ada experiments
These days, Calandrelli is also known as the author of the “Ada Lace” series of science-themed adventures for young readers.
She signed copies of her books Sunday, at University Town Centre.
Her protagonist, Ada, is an inquisitive 8-year-old who uses her scientific mind to help people while solving mysteries.
Is Ada autobiographical?
“Gosh, no,” the author said. “I didn’t ‘get’ science when I was a kid.”
What she did get was a call to service.
Growing up in her Suncrest neighborhood, she helped stage backyard carnivals to raise money for muscular dystrophy research. Sales from her summertime lemonade stand went to WVU’s Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center.
Today, she said, science and technology can aid in quality of life. And young people, she said, literally are the future.
Which is where the Alka-Seltzer and the kid saying, “Whoa,” came in.
“Science doesn’t have to be intimidating,” Calandrelli said. “Science is telling the story of our world and our universe.”
Before the book-signings, Calandrelli helped host a mini-science fair with her friends and colleagues from the NASA West Virginia Space Grant Program.
Besides the bicarbonate-fueled rockets, participants made LED light-up cards and got to work on ham radio sets, among the many tables that were set up on the sidewalk outside the Barnes & Noble book store.
Slime Time Sunday
Elizabeth Gergus was quite popular at the event. That’s because Gergus, a science enthusiast and Calandrelli fan from Birmingham, Ala., was running the “slime” table.
“I’m up here visiting friends, and when I found out this was going to be part of the book signings, I said, ‘I’m in.’ ”
Audrey Kurilchick-Green, meanwhile, was in deep as Gergus worked her through the recipe, which included a solution of 20-Mule Borax — yep, the same detergent on the TV western your granddad used to watch — along with a splash of glue and a dash of food coloring stirred in.
Audrey, who goes to Ridgedale Elementary School and loves reading, came for the books and stayed for the science.
The end result of the slime recipe was a glorious mess that was gooey and stretchy. It was a primer in polymers, Gergus said.
“All the molecules are just hanging out together,” she said. “It’ll get even ‘stretchier’ in a couple
of days.”
Audrey was enthralled.
“So that’s how they do that,” she said.
Follow The Dominion Post on Twitter@DominionPostWV. Email Jim Bissett: jbissett@dominionpost.com.
