News Release| IMPACT LA; Cal State L.A.

April 29, 2010

Media Advisory: IMPACT LA’s Eastside science outreach
Friday, April 30, 2010; 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Science and engineering facilities, Cal State L.A.

Interviews available in English and Spanish; possibly Chinese and Korean

Release the foil boats! Launch the Alka-Seltzer rockets!

240 6th- through 12th-graders landing at Cal State L.A. Friday
to explore science, engineering via IMPACT LA

Note to editors and news directors: It’s called IMPACT LA because it’s designed to make a lasting impression on middle- and high-school students – particularly by helping them see themselves as future scientists and engineers.

On Friday, 240 students from four Los Angeles schools will visit Cal State L.A. to tour labs, to witness demonstrations, and to hear career and academic advice from scientists and engineers. They themselves will also engage in engineering – by racing foil boats, launching Alka-Seltzer rockets, and building teams with LEGOs.

The students will come from the Marc and Eva Stern Mathematics and Science School on Cal State L.A. campus and three schools in Boyle Heights: Theodore Roosevelt High School, Hollenbeck Middle School, and Robert Louis Stevenson Middle School.

IMPACT LA stands for Improving Minority Partnerships and Access through CISE*-related Teaching. (*CISE refers to “Computer and Information Science and Engineering.)  Funded by a five-year, $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the program pairs college graduate students and local K-12 math or science teachers.  (Click to previous stories about it:  /univ/ppa/spotlight/archive/2009/impact_la.php and /univ/ppa/spotlight/archive/2009/impact-la2.php.

Reporters are welcome to attend sessions and join tours. Activities run from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Organizers, teachers and students will be available for interviews. Lunch (at 11:30 a.m.) will offer the best time for student interviews. 

To make arrangements, call the Public Affairs office at Cal State L.A., 323-343-3050.

The general schedule (activities overlap as six groups of students rotate through):

9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Friday, April 30, 2010.
             9 a.m. – Buses arrive amid smoke-ring demo - ECST patio

            9:30 to 11:30 a.m.
                        Panels on careers and college life - E&T building
                        Hands-on activities with boats, rockets, LEGOs - ECST patio

            11:30 to noon – Lunch (Physical Sciences patio & ECST patio)

       Noon to 1:30 – Tours and demonstrations (in various locations, showcasing
            biomedical and computer vision, Supermileage vehicle, NASA telescope, physics
            and other labs)

            ECST – Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology;
            E&T – Engineering and Technology

California State University, Los Angeles is located at the intersection of the 10 and 710 freeway. (For campus map and directions, go to /univ/maps/cslamap.php)

#  #  #

 

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 210,000 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