Day of event contact: Thelma Federico, director of the MESA Schools Program: (323) 343-4565 (office) or (661) 878-2217 (cell), [email protected]
(Full news release appended below)
See eggs drop, bridges break, trebuchets launch
Note to editors and news directors: What high-school or middle-school student wouldn’t want to drop an egg off a building or launch a trebuchet payload skyward? Even if – or especially if – it means learning more about math?
On Saturday, Feb. 23, more than 500 science-enthused middle- and high-school students will converge at California State University, Los Angeles to fire their trebuchets, race mousetrap cars, create heart replicas, break balsawood bridges, and drop egg from rooftops. These activities are part of MESA Day at Cal State L.A., a preliminary round of science and engineering competitions that allow students to demonstrate their knowledge of mathematical and physical principles. See full news release below for details, including a list of 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/orientation (Eagles Nest Gym second floor)
8:50 – 10:20 a.m. --- Math competitions (King Hall classrooms)
10:30 – 11:20 a.m. --- Hands-on activities (trebuchet, egg drop, etc.)
(Engineering & Technology Building, track and vicinity)
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 (Engineering & Technology Quad)
2:20 – 2:50 p.m. --- Raffle/Evaluations (Eagles Nest Gym, second floor)
2:50 – 4 p.m. --- Awards Ceremony (Eagles Nest Gym, second floor)
WHERE:
California State University, Los Angeles.
WHO:
More than 500 students, more than 30 teachers, and others.
Key contact: Thelma Federico: director, MESA Schools Program, Cal State L.A.: (323) 343-4565 (office) or (661) 878-2217 (cell).
Eggs to drop, trebuchets to fire, cars to race, students to shine
Los Angeles, CA – What high-school or middle-school student wouldn’t want to drop an egg off a building or launch a trebuchet payload skyward? Even if – or especially if – it means learning more about math.
On Saturday, Feb. 23, more than 500 science-enthused middle- and high-school students from 16 schools in Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley will converge at California State University, Los Angeles to fire their trebuchets, race mousetrap cars, create heart replicas, break balsawood bridges, and drop impact-resistant egg capsules from great heights (and hope the eggs don’t break). All are custom-made.
These and other hands-on activities are part of MESA Day at Cal State L.A., a preliminary round of science and engineering competitions that allow students – many from disadvantaged communities – 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 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.
AN ACTIVE AGENDA
After arriving shortly after 7 a.m. for breakfast and then an orientation in the second floor of the gym, 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 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 Building; meanwhile, the mousetrap cars will be racing down a fourth-floor hallway in the building. Students’ balsawood gliders, entered in “The Wright Stuff” competition, will get airborne at the Cal State L.A.’s Jesse Owens Stadium.
Back at the gym, following a raffle and evaluations, an awards ceremony will be held from 2:50 to 4 p.m.
PARTICIPATING SCHOOLS
The following middle schools, all returnees from past competitions, are participating:
El Sereno (Los Angeles)
Henry T. Gage (Huntington Park)
David Wark Griffith (Los Angeles)
Hollenbeck (Los Angeles)
Nightingale (Los Angeles)
Chester W. Nimitz (Huntington Park)
Roosevelt (Glendale)
These high schools are participating (* indicates new this year): Annenberg Accelerated Charter (Los Angeles)
Gabrielino (San Gabriel)
Lincoln (Los Angeles)
Roosevelt (Los Angeles)
El Monte (El Monte)*
South El Monte (South El Monte)*
Rosemead (Rosemead)*
Mountain View (El Monte)*
Arroyo (El Monte)*
THE SCIENCE ADVISORS
Roughly 35 teachers at the schools serve as advisors to the students. Here are some of them:
Domingo and Evelyn Torres-Rangel, a husband-and-wife team at Gabrielino High School in San Gabriel, have been involved for more than 20 years.
David Meyerhof, Florence Nightingale Middle School, has also been at this for many years working with hundreds of students.
Marty Romero, Annenberg Accelerated Charter High School, is a former MESA student of the Torres-Rangels who is now bringing his background in robotics to his students.
Joey Calmer of South El Monte High School is helping launch that school’s participation in MESA this year; and he’s already seen its impact on students. Of one girl, he said: “This student started with no interest in science and through MESA and learning about DNA, she has become interested in forensics. It is amazing that this transformation happened so quickly. I look forward to teaching her every day now because I know she wants to learn more. She actually told me that she wants to get into a college-prep class now.”
Coordinating the event at Cal State L.A. is Thelma Federico, director of the MESA Schools Program in the University’s College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology. For details, call her at (323) 343-4565.
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 200,000 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. Among 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