The scientists of tomorrow, most of them young girls, made sturdy towers from newspaper, wore cardboard DNA strands in their hair and built toothbrush robots.
"It really shows you can put a motor on anything," said Ainsley Sierzega, 12, of Williamsport, watching her brush race across the floor.
Music blared in the background at the Sally Ride Science Festival, which traveled to Towson University for the third consecutive year Saturday. A few danced but most of the 500 participants focused on the latest scientific techniques for tie-dying T-shirts, mixing slime and building a matrix.
"We are like a traveling rock festival, the Woodstock of science," said Francis French, events director for the fair, founded by America's first woman in space. "We have a star, a stage, music and an audience."
Wendy Lawrence, 14 years an astronaut and veteran of four space shuttle missions, starred.
"She signed my shoe!" said Emma Munis, 13, pointing to the autograph on the white tip of her red tennis shoes.
In addition to speaking, Lawrence answered questions and promised to participate in at least one workshop.
"There was nothing like this when I was growing up," she said. "I am envious of the opportunity these kids have here today."
Ride designed the event eight years ago to spur interest in science, math and technology, particularly among girls. "This is a great opportunity for students to experience science as something fun and cool and to meet women working in the field," said Meredith Manning, vice president of marketing for Ride's San Diego-based company.
The mild spring weather allowed Towson University, the 80th stop since the tour began in 2001, to create an outdoor street fair. Breezes did create difficulties for the newspaper tower builders.
"I have a wind problem," said Ona Neumann, 9, of Baltimore, who worked more than an hour on her paper sculpture, striving more for a strong base than height.
Instead of the 8 inches of tape allowed, Ona chose to tie pieces together. She continually tore strips and scrunched paper until her hands and much of her shirt were blackened with newsprint.
"It's a masterpiece of great ideas," said Terri Bright, an environmental engineer and festival volunteer. "Hers might not be the tallest tower, but it says something to invention. She could probably figure out how to get off a desert island."
Gregory Neumann, who works in planetary altimetry at NASA, praised his daughter's free-form exercise.
