Media Advisory:
Saturday, March 7, 2009, CSULA
Eggs to drop,
bridges to break, fake hearts to beat
– and young
students to become engineers
500 middle- and high-school
students to compete
at Cal State L.A.’s MESA science
competition
Note to editors and
news directors:
On Saturday, March 7, more than 500 science-enthused middle- and
high-school students will converge at California State University,
Los Angeles to race mousetrap cars, create simulated hearts, break
balsawood bridges, drop eggs from rooftops, and demonstrate other
custom-made marvels.
These activities are
part of MESA Day at Cal State L.A., a preliminary round of
competitions allowing students to showcase their knowledge of
mathematical and physical principles. On the surface, it’s about the
speed, strength and ingenuity of projects. More deeply, it’s about
building bridges to engineering careers that MESA participants might
not otherwise have foreseen.
See
below for background, activities and participating schools.
WHAT:
MESA Day preliminary science competition, with egg drops, trebuchet
launches, mousetrap car races, math contests, glider races and more.
WHEN:
8 – 8:30 a.m. Welcome
8:50 – 10:20 a.m.
Team and solo math competitions
10:30 – 11:20 a.m.
Two more rounds of
the hands-on activities will take place:
11:30 a.m. – 12:20
p.m.
1:15 – 2:10 p.m.
12:15 – 1:10
p.m. Lunch, with “Concrete Bowling” competition
2:20 – 2:50 p.m.
Raffle/Evaluations
2:50 – 4
p.m. Awards Ceremony
WHERE:
California State University, Los Angeles.
campus map:
http://www.calstatela.edu/univ/maps/cslamap.php
WHO:
More than
500 students, more than 30 teachers, and others will be in
attendance.
The following middle
schools are participating:
El Sereno (Los Angeles)
Henry T. Gage
(Huntington Park)
Hollenbeck (Los
Angeles)
Nightingale (Los
Angeles)
Chester W. Nimitz (Huntington Park)
Roosevelt (Glendale)
L.A. Academy*
The following high
schools are participating:
Gabrielino (San Gabriel)
Lincoln (Los Angeles)
Roosevelt (Los Angeles)
South El Monte (South El Monte)
John Muir High School (Pasadena)*
Eagle Rock High School (Eagle Rock)*
*new participants
this year
Key contact:
Thelma Federico: director, MESA Schools Program, Cal State L.A.:
(323) 343-4565 (office) or (661) 878-2217 (cell).
_________________________________________________________________
Background/agenda:
Cal State L.A. hosts MESA science
contests for 500 L.A., SGV students
Los Angeles, CA
– With mousetrap cars racing underfoot and eggs dropping from above
(in impact-resistant capsules), more than 500 science-enthused
middle- and high-school students from 13 schools in Los Angeles and
the San Gabriel Valley are converging at California State
University, Los Angeles Saturday, March 7.
Relying on their own
custom-made designs, the students will also launch payloads from
trebuchets, create heart replicas, and stress balsawood bridges to
their breaking point.
These and other
hands-on activities are part of MESA Day at Cal State L.A., a
preliminary round of science and engineering competition that allows
students to demonstrate their knowledge of mathematical and physical
principles.
MESA – short for
Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement – is a state-funded
program designed to boost the readiness of students, particularly
those from underserved communities, for college and encourage them
to pursue science-related fields. The MESA Schools Program works
with teachers, parents, industry representatives and others to make
its students more competitive when applying to colleges.
After arriving
shortly after 7 a.m. for breakfast and then an orientation in the
second floor of the Eagles Nest Gymnasium, the students at 8:50 a.m.
will launch into a series of solo and team mathematics competitions
ranging from general math to algebra to calculus. The math contests
will be held in King Hall. The hands-on activities will run in
three successive roughly one-hour sessions, beginning at 10:30 a.m.,
11:30 a.m. and 1:15 p.m.
The trebuchets –
catapult-like ancient weapons – will be tested at an outdoor
basketball court just west of the Cal State L.A. Engineering and
Technology Building; meanwhile, the mousetrap cars will be racing
across the gymnasium floor. Students’ balsawood gliders, entered in
“The Wright Stuff” competition, will get airborne in another section
of the gym.
Following a raffle
and evaluations, an awards ceremony will be held from 2:50 to
4 p.m. in the gym.
# # #
Working for California since 1947: The 175-acre hilltop campus of California State University, Los Angeles is at the heart of a major metropolitan city, just five miles from Los Angeles’ civic and cultural center. More than 20,000 students and 205,000 alumni—with a wide variety of interests, ages and backgrounds—reflect the city’s dynamic mix of populations. Six colleges offer nationally recognized science, arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education and humanities programs, among others, led by an award-winning faculty. Cal State L.A. is home to the critically-acclaimed Luckman Jazz Orchestra and to a unique university center for gifted students as young as 12.
Programs that provide exciting enrichment opportunities to students and community include an NEH- and Rockefeller-supported humanities center; a NASA-funded center for space research; and a growing forensic science program, housed in the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center. www.calstatela.edu
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