This post is written by Theresa Summer, Astronomy Educator, Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

Theresa Summer of ASP, demonstrating EarthMatch to Girl Scouts. Credit: Vivian White

CosmoQuest’s new game, EarthMatch, was featured at the Golden Gate Bridging event sponsored by the Girl Scouts of Northern California on Saturday April 29th 2017. Girl Scouts have “bridging” events when they pass between levels – in this case, from Juniors (4th & 5th Grades) to Cadettes (Middle School).

Over 8,000 girls and adult volunteers walked across the Golden Gate Bridge, followed by a party on Crissy Field with music, snacks, and fun activity booths. This is the biggest event of the year for Girl Scouts of Northern California and the weather was perfect.

ASP booth demonstrating EarthMatch at Girl Scout Bridging event. Credit: Theresa Summer

But the best thing about the day was playing EarthMatch with the girls and seeing their faces light up as they matched the astronaut images to the pictures from Earth. Some were surprised at the scale difference from being 250 miles (400 km) up in the International Space Station. Others enjoyed collaborating with their fellow Girl Scouts, describing the changes that occurred. All of them enjoyed making matches and sharing their rationale about why the images went together.

Girl Scouts learning about EarthMatch from Theresa Summer of ASP. Credit: Vivian White

Having these types of science experiences contributes to girls’ “science capital” – their feelings of competence and belonging to the science field. CosmoQuest is the perfect platform for including everyone in scientific endeavors. The girls took buttons and stickers with our URL on them, and were very excited about doing citizen science in the future with CosmoQuest!