{"id":12270,"date":"2022-08-18T12:18:22","date_gmt":"2022-08-18T19:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/?p=12270"},"modified":"2022-08-18T12:20:24","modified_gmt":"2022-08-18T19:20:24","slug":"they-take-control-of-cal-academy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/they-take-control-of-cal-academy\/","title":{"rendered":"Teenagers take over Cal Academy for a night of science"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Cal
Marine biology teacher and diver Jordan Lee swims through the Philippine Coral Reef at Teen Science Night at the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park on August 12, 2022. (Rya Jetha\/Bay City News)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Rya Jetha and Alexandra Garcia. Bay City News<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re here because our science teacher is diving in one of the tanks!\u201d said Layla Maura, 16, as she and her friends waited outside the California Academy of Sciences on Friday.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maura and her friends attend George Washington High School and received an email from their teacher about the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

"We thought, 'Why not watch him tonight, swimming?'" Maura said.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, the doors of Cal Academy opened and hundreds of teens filed in to take over the Teen Science Night venue.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Teen Science Night organizers greet students walking through the four-story Osher Rainforest with butterfly wings at the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park on Aug. 12, 2022. (Rya Jetha\/Bay City News)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The event is planned once a year for teens at Cal Academy in Golden Gate Park. On Friday from 6:30 to 9 p.m., teens could visit the museum for free, attend special programs \u2014 like the teacher diving into the tank \u2014 and connect with organizations and resources that support teens in the Bay Area.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of the teens who attended Friday's event had not visited Cal Academy since they were children or before the pandemic.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI used to come here a lot, so this is very nostalgic for me. It\u2019s nice to see the aquarium and the butterflies,\u201d said Jade Huang, a recent Cupertino High School graduate. The Steinhart Aquarium at Cal Academy is home to more than 900 species of animals and takes visitors into the ocean\u2019s \u201ctwilight zone,\u201d typically located between 100 and 500 feet below the ocean\u2019s surface.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Teens walk through the four-story Osher Rainforest enclosed in a dome at the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park during Teen Science Night on Aug. 12, 2022. (Rya Jetha\/Bay City News)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ty Hosein, another recent San Jose graduate, said he attended Teen Science Night because of his interest in biodiversity.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great place to see biodiversity, from the aquarium to the biosphere,\u201d Hosein said, referring to the four-story-high dome that encloses a vertical rainforest of plants, beetles, birds, butterflies and even an Amazonian tree boa.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other teenagers attending the event were delighted that they didn't have to pay to get in.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m here because it\u2019s free and I don\u2019t have any money. Plus, I like it here,\u201d Jasmine Strain said as they waited in line to visit the rainforest. \u201cI\u2019m also a huge science nerd. I love space, I love earthquakes, especially since I live in San Francisco.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As teens explored the museum\u2019s diverse offerings, from the new \u201cBugs\u201d exhibit to \u201cThe Swamp,\u201d home of the famous albino alligator Claude, Bay Area organizations like the San Francisco Public Library, TeenTechSF Global and Literacy for Environmental Justice spoke to students about their missions and resources.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Connecting Bay Area teens with resources was especially important to the event\u2019s teen planners, many of whom are students of color interested in STEM careers.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teen Science Night is planned by interns in the careers in science program at Cal Academy. Interns join the program as sophomores or juniors and work, teach, and research at the museum until they graduate from high school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re from a minority immigrant family who may not be able to afford higher education like I was, Teen Science Night connects you with organizations that are really excited to support students and help them get involved in science,\u201d said Viva Voong of SF\u2019s Portola District, one of the student organizers of the event.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI hope teens know that there are so many resources that want to support women and people of color,\u201d said Voong, who interned at the museum for three years doing botany projects, working on teams with NASA scientists and presenting research at the American Geophysical Union Conference.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis program has connected me with others who serve people of color and helped me realize that there is a lot of support for people like me to pursue their dreams,\u201d said Voong, who is headed to Brown University this fall to continue research and ultimately become an oncologist.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Racqyl Basas of SF's Outer Sunset, another student organizer of Teen Science Night, isn't so sure what kind of STEM career she wants to pursue.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are so many other options to get involved in STEM that don\u2019t require having a PhD or writing scientific papers,\u201d Basas explained. \u201cWhen you think about science, it shouldn\u2019t just be a white lab coat. There are so many other opportunities, so we hope it\u2019s something that teens will realize.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Basas hopes to explore careers in geology and science communication at City College of San Francisco beginning this fall.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Teens walk through the four-story Osher Rainforest watching butterflies weave among thousands of plants at Teen Science Night at the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park on Aug. 12, 2022. (Rya Jetha\/Bay City News)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

She credits her experience working in the library archives at Cal Academy for boosting her self-confidence and shaping her career aspirations.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe library archives mentoring taught me about these great discoveries and contributions of people of color in science, but we don\u2019t recognize the origin of their discoveries,\u201d said Basas, who described Luis Felipe Baptista during his internship.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baptista immigrated to San Francisco from Hong Kong right after finishing high school and began researching at Cal Academy. He eventually became an international expert on animal behavior and bird learning.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not an immigrant, but I am first generation,\u201d Basas said. \u201cIf he \u2013 Baptista \u2013 could take that step straight out of high school, it\u2019s definitely something I can do!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Voong and Basas were hard at work at Teen Science Night to make sure the event ran smoothly, teens gathered at the \u201cCoral Reefs of the World\u201d exhibit to learn about the Philippine coral reef and watch Jordan Lee, a former youth volunteer at Cal Academy and current marine biology teacher at George Washington High School, dive into the tank.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maura and her friends cheered as she swam through one of the largest covered coral reefs in the world, surrounded by schools of fluorescent fish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You may be interested in: North Fair Oaks Festival, meeting place<\/a><\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Por Rya Jetha y Alexandra Garc\u00eda. Bay City News. \u00ab\u00a1Estamos aqu\u00ed porque nuestro maestro de ciencias est\u00e1 buceando en uno de los tanques!\u00bb, Dijo Layla Maura, de 16 a\u00f1os, mientras ella y sus amigos esperaban fuera de la Academia de Ciencias de California el viernes.\u00a0\u00a0 Maura y sus amigos asisten a la escuela secundaria George […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12270","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-community","8":"category-cover"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12270"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12284,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12270\/revisions\/12284"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}