Careful not to knock elbows with those around her, Ivy Fontenot, 10, merrily wielded a dull knife to roughly chop apple slices symbolizing chunks of planet Earth.

To her side, other girls used their hoodie sleeves as oven mitts to hold up a tray of lemon cookies while others mashed raspberries on the surface to resemble the volcanic landscape of Mars.

“I just like all of space,” said a smiling Ivy.

Crowded around her fellow members of Girls Inc. — the local chapter of a national group that supports young girls in seeking out interesting, challenging work — she remarked not on how the edible facets of a solar system diorama would be tasty but on how celestial origins are fascinating.

“ I just want to know how they existed in the first place and how we existed in the first place,” Ivy sa

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