Intrepid’s Salute to Women was in full swing this past weekend as Intrepid celebrated both girls in sports and in science and engineering.

Saturday was the Museum’s sports themed day and top female athletes were on hand to encourage young women to participate in sports for fun, for fitness or to learn life skills.

Two-time Gold Olympian soccer player Heather O’Reilly of the Sky Blue FC team and New York Liberty Legend Kym Hampton talked to girls about how sports have changed their lives. The Liberty’s mascot, Maddie and their street team led kids in basketball drills, while the pros from the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center encouraged kids to step up to their indoor court and play some tennis.

Intrepid’s stage was filled with sports demonstrations as well – courtesy of the New York Magic women’s soccer team and two members of the US National Women’s Sabre Team, who showed visitors how to fence.

On Sunday, visitors accepted science and engineering challenges. Year-round partners with the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum’s Education Department, scientists, engineers and educators from local New York City area institutions spent the day inspiring and aweing visitors of all ages.

The Intrepid Museum’s Exploreum was full of activities and demonstrations, and the Discovery Deck was the go-to location for engineering design challenges and how to find out how an aquifer works.

This activity-rich day was one to remember with the making of boats with Iridescent, navigating underwater remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) with SeaPerch, constructing bridges with gum drops and toothpicks with the Rutgers University Engineering School team, discovering the energy required to generate electric energy on Con Edison’s Pedal-A-Watt Bicycle, sorting balls of different colors with robots and meeting a robotic patient and practicing clinical skills with New York Institute of Technology professors and graduate students, realizing the wonders of being an astronaut in space with the New York City Center for Space Science Education, and discovering what lives in the Hudson River with Intrepid’s educators.

To end the day the Museum provided an ASL-led and interpreted program that focused on the temporary exhibition Inspiration and Industry: American Women on the Home Front. Participants viewed the exhibit, learned about women entering the workforce while men were fighting oversees during WWII, and discovered how the representation of women changed overtime, specifically from WWI to WWII. It was an interesting and inspiring program attended by families and friends.

Intrepid will continue to celebrate Girls in Science and Engineering Week through March 26.