What a whirlwind weekend I’ve had! With the Scholastic Writing Awards ceremony, a guest session at my online creative writing programme, and a weekend workshop for the ten winners of the Scholastic Writing Awards, the weekend has flown by in the best possible way!
As with every guest session, yesterday was special. I’ve invited Sreeja before and I know how exciting conversations with her can be for a group of curious young writers. She’s exciting, warm and generous with her interactions, never dismissing a question or an idea out of hand. For instance, there was a moment yesterday when a child asked her, “Could there be mermaids on some other planet?”
Sreeja paused and then responded, “Why not?”
Sreeja is a scientist at NASA and also leads a team at a start-up that is building and deploying what could be the first self-driving robotic fleet on public roads. She has a PhD in Space Systems Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge and studies space systems, space robotics for Earth observation, space traffic management, and vehicular robotics validation. That’s about as exciting as it gets for children interested in space stories.
Watching her interact with the creative writing students yesterday was wonderful. I enjoyed her session as much as – if not more than – the children.
As always, I was also struck by all the questions she was asked. Here are a few:
- Does NASA hire artists?
- How do astronauts sleep in space?
- How do they train to sleep in space?
- Don’t astronauts get bored of their jobs?
- Do you think a planet with huge oceans could have enormous creatures?
- Do astronauts ever argue when they’re on space missions?
- How do you get network at the International Space Station?
Guest sessions bring magic to the programme, and a NASA scientist? That’s all kinds of special.
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