Phoebe Patrick is a 5th grader at Columbus Magnet School. She has been there for six years. During that time, she has started playing cello in the CMS Strings program, because she likes music and comes from a musical family. She likes working together with her Academically Talented group to figure out problems. In the Artistically Talented program, she likes sketching and making small models.

Outside of school, Phoebe plays travel soccer because she likes teamwork and fitness. She also likes sewing, especially making quilts (and pajama pants for presents). She enjoys independent sports also, such as biking and swimming. She loves being on the water, especially tubing or kayaking. She likes ocean kayaking because she likes waves, but she kayaks on lakes too.

Phoebe loves experiments because she likes searching for answers. She has participated in many science fairs. Her comparison of tail movements in sharks and dolphins won a prize. She also does experiments at home, such as making a catapult, putting together a robotic hand, and designing her own vending machine out of tissue boxes. She also likes to build things out of wood.

Phoebe adores roller coasters and goes on them whenever she can. She thinks going into space may feel like a crazy roller coaster, because astronauts rocket into the air. She has never gotten motion sickness. Her favorites are Mission to Mars, which simulates a blast-off from Earth and a landing on Mars, and the Incredible Hulk, which goes upside down incredibly fast. She’s interested in designing a new roller coaster someday called The Tesseract, an idea from a Madeleine L’Engle book. She loves reading, especially the Harry Potter series and books about nature.

Phoebe lives in Norwalk, CT, with her parents, her sister Thalia, and her little beagle Fluke. (He is also part coon tick hound and very fast.)

Phoebe’s favorite activity is Young Astronauts. She loves all the experiments, especially making rockets, the spaghetti challenge, and keeping Astronaut Eggbert safe. She doesn’t mind if experiments fail, because when that happens, she just tries again. Her favorite part is working with her fellow Young Astronauts on projects, such as the cookie challenge. She enjoys learning about the steps to space flight, and about the people who helped get astronauts into orbit and eventually to the moon, and people who research in space. She has worked hard for five years and she is excited for her Mission, In Manibus Terrae.

She hopes Young Astronaut training might help her get a job at NASA when she grows up. Maybe she could even become an astronaut! Phoebe has been really inspired by people who work at NASA and hopes to be like them someday.