Girls encounter infinite possibilities in search for perfect game board

Forget hot gossip, pillow fights and horror movies. These girls' slumber parties garner astronomical ideas for board games.

"We switched around a lot on our topics," said Danita Bayer, a home-schooled Carson City student, planning a science board game with her friends. "At first, we were going to do countries and then we thought about doing cultures, and then different eras through the ages, then finally planets. We went through a lot of different ideas."

Their overnight brainstorming sessions paid off. Judges for San Diego's Toy Challenge liked their game proposal so much that they invited Danita and friends Jayme Foremaster, Sierra Jiron and Jill Shufelt to the national contest at the San Diego Aerospace Museum on April 30.

"I think they'll like it. I hope they'll like our game," Sierra said. "We just need to sit down and get it done and not procrastinate."

The Toy Challenge National Showcase is sponsored by Sally Ride Science and Smith College's Picker Engineering Program.

The idea is to promote science education, particularly in girls, who must comprise at least half of each game-making team.

For this team of all girls, a lot of small, detailed work lays ahead. They have a $200 budget to make the final version of their "What in the Solar System?" game. Included is a vinyl roll-up board featuring the Milky Way planets, a planets research book, game cards with questions and an instructional CD done in extraterrestial-like voices.

"There already have been a lot of challenges that we've overcome," Jayme said. "Finishing will be challenging, but this has definitely brought the four of us together."

Players of "What in the Solar System?" move from planet to planet by answering one of three levels of questions. The level of difficulty determines the number of planets the players move, allowing them to determine a winning strategy as they play. A player wins when she has a peg representing each planet in her clay planetary playing piece.

As well as coming up with food ideas associated with each of the planets within the next 2 1/2 weeks, like "Mars"hmallows, the girls also need to finalize some finer points of the game. Do they include, for example, the oft-talked-about but never officially sanctioned 10th planet in the galaxy called Quaroar?

Nothing a slumber party can't iron out.

n Contact reporter Maggie O'Neill at moneill@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1219.

You can help

To donate money to help the girls make it to San Diego, call the Bayers at 883-9351 or the Foremasters at 882-5851.

On the Net

For information on Toy Challenge and the national showcase:

www.toychallenge.com