Students at at P.S. 19Q Marino Jeantet in Corona, under the leadership of Emily Calandrelli (AKA Emily the Space Gal), were among more than 250 schools across the United States to launch a baking soda bottle rocket on Thursday, Oct. 10, setting a record for most baking soda bottles launched in a single day.
This record was set on the inaugural Arm and Hammer Baking Soda Rocket Day: Launch Across America. In addition to the simultaneous launches across all these schools, the U.S. Space and Rocket Center—Home of Space Camp also took part in the event with a launch of their own. The hands-on event was meant to teach the participating kids about STEAM and potentially help ignite their interest in pursuing a career in that field, potentially closing the representation gap in these growing fields.
Calandrelli gave the P.S.19Q students a presentation in the school’s auditorium prior to the rocket launch. She discussed the story of her life as a way to engage and inspire the students to pursue their dreams, with a big focus on the representation of women in STEAM.
She recalled not knowing the difference between a telescope and a microscope when she was ten years old, as well as a teacher in high school telling her she would not be a good fit for honors science. However, Calandrelli continued to work hard and persevere, eventually graduating from college with a degree in Aerospace Engineering before majoring in Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT.
“The bottom line here is you can make yourself smarter, and this is the message that I want you guys to remember because it is so easy to feel like you’re behind sometimes,” Calandrelli said. “It doesn’t matter if your foundation is lower; your ceiling can be higher.”
Calandrelli recalled having to overcome her personal fears when she got her first job in television out of college. By doing so, she was eventually able to become the first woman in the U.S. with a national science show, “Xploration Outer Space.”
“You don’t let a little bit of fear get in the way of you doing cool things, of you achieving your dreams,” Calandrelli said. “When you are the first to do something, that is a beautiful thing because you are showing all of those kids younger than you, who look like you, that they can do it too. You have the power to do that. When we talk about representation, we always talk about how important it is for those it represents, like girls and women in STEM. But it’s just as important for boys to have female role models too, because it changes how they see their friends and the women throughout their lives. Another message I want to leave with you guys is to believe in your own magic, that thing that makes you stand out, that thing that makes you feel like a little bit different later in life, that can very well become your superpower.”
Calandrelli concluded her presentation by showing off a science experiment of her own. It was similar to the planned rocket launch but with the use of paint cans rather than soda bottles.
Following Calandrelli’s presentation, she and the students went outside to participate in the rocket launch. In the days leading up to this event, the students crafted different rocket components. They each made their rocket from a 2-liter plastic bottle and decorated it with paper wings and other designs. Some wrote wishes on the top of their rockets to launch their dreams into the sky.
The kids from each grade took turns igniting their rockets. They screamed and cheered as the baking soda and vinegar mixtures came flying out of the bottles, sending the rockets up into the air.
Calandrelli will soon be going into space herself via Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket for a short trip up and back down, fulfilling a childhood dream of hers.
“When I’m on the launch pad, strapped into my seat, and hearing that countdown, I’m going to be thinking of that ten-year-old girl who so desperately wanted to be one of the smart kids. And I’m going to tell her that we never needed that because we had something better. We had grit and we had perseverance, and that will make your ceiling as high as the stars.”
