Isabel Miller- Short Story - Mineral County

I. Miller Short Story

Last summer I attended the Governor's STEM Institute (GSI). This two-week long experience started with an early morning stop at McDonald's for a final breakfast before I spent two weeks in "nowhere, West Virginia" to study radio wave emission in the universe with a bunch of kids my age who I didn't know. The fact that there's no cell service only built my anxiousness. We started the two-hour drive, my nervousness matching my excitement. Finally, we came around the cure of a mountain to see the gigantic Green Bank Telescope (GBT) looming in the distance. We chaecked in at the visitor's center, where they give me a name tag and a binder full of paper for taking notes. We headed back to the bunk house to unpack. My bunk was in the back corner of the room. In the bunkhouse there were bunkbeds all the way up the narrow room, the heads against the wall; however, in the corner i was in they were arranged in a U shape, giving us our own little boxed-in area. Once my parents left, my nerves started getting to me. I was afraid I wouldn't make any friends. That would change in a few hours! After dinner we went to the visitor's center auditorium, which is where our afternoon lectures would take place for the next two weeks. There was a short introduction by Sue Ann Heatherly, who would be with us through the whole time we were there, helping us with research and teaching us about Radio Astronomy. Then we were sorted into groups of 5-7 people. We had a group meeting and we got to know the people we would spend our next two weeks with. My group consisted of four other girls, along with our mentor and a teacher to help us along the way, but who weren't allowed to tell us answers to things in our research project. These prople made my experience one that I will never forget and I still keep in contact with my group members. The next morning, we were taught how to use the 40-foot radio telescope, which is what we would use for our research. Then, once we had completed all of our training, we were given our research projects. My group's project was to investigate the emission of radio waves in our solar system. My time at GSI was inredibly fn and I made lifelong friends; however, the hardest part was the fact that things like cell phones, Apple watches, and Air Pods were not permitted and if we had them when we were observing, we could cause interference with the telescopes and our data would be corrupted. So, during the two weeks I was there, I only talked to my parents four times, as we had to use landline phones and there were always lines of kids trying to call home. It was peaceful to say the least. There were 60 fourteen-year-olds but we were all just talking and having fun without our phones. It was eye opening to me when I realized how often I use my phone, and many times throughout the two weeks I was reaching into my pocket to text someone, or looking at my wrist to check the time. Every day had a similar schedule. We woke up at 6:30 AM, and had breakfast. Then we headed to the Jansky Building for our morning lecture. Here, we would sign up for two activities to do that day, one right after the lecture and one later in the day. Some activities I did were biking, caving, hiking, reading and many more. After our first activity, we either had free time, which I usually spent in the bunk house talking to friends or reading, or we were taught different things, like how to solder, and what lives in creeks and how to test the water levels. Then we had lunch. After lunch we did our second activity, then an afternoon lecture in the visitor's center auditorium, then more free time. My group spent our afternoon free time in the computer lab, which is behind a faraday cage to keep the computers' radiation from interfering with the telescopes, researching for our research project. after free time was dinner, then a group teambuilding activity. After this we had a team meeting with our group, teacher, and mentor, then a snack. By this time it would have been around 9:00. Lights out was 10:00 so we would usually shower then talk until sleeping time. At the end of our first week of camp, during our afternoon lecture, we were told that we would be given the opportunity to use the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope, the GBT for short. We had to write a letter to one of the GBT operators asking for permission to use the GBT and we had to explain what our research project was, and, we got permission! We learned to write the manuscripts for theGT, then woke up at 2:45 AM to observe with the GBT. Once we had gathered all of our data, we got to work on constructing a PowerPoint to convey te results of our research project. we also created a poster with our results that will be displayed in the observatory until the next group of GSI sutdents go to Green Bank to have the wonderful experience and the great opportunity that I had. Finally, after what felt like both a short stay and an eternity of sleeping on uncomfortable bunk beds, waking up in the middle of the night to gather data for our project, making lifelong friends, and learning new and interesting things every day, my parents arrived at the observatory to take me back to civilization. This experience was maybe the best I'll ever have, as I psent time off the grid with a group of like-minded peers to study something absolutely amazing, radio waves.

Isabel Miller

14

Short Story

Mineral