LAGUNA NIGUEL : Club Gets Pupils Into Science of Things

“Wow! Ours actually works!”

Fifth-grader Erin Rose was beaming. The small car topped with an aluminum foil sail that she and classmate Brittany Clements put together had just passed its initial test with flying colors.

When an electric fan was turned on, their “land yacht” caught the breeze and took off across the tile floor of Crown Valley Elementary’s multipurpose room.

Yet, after some review, 11-year-old Erin and 10-year-old Brittany thought about changing the design of the pocketlike sail they had made.

“I like to do science,” Erin said.

The girls were among 36 fifth-graders Tuesday who were getting an opportunity to learn scientific principles and concepts at a new after-school club introduced to the Capistrano Unified School District’s elementary schools.

Devised by an organization called Future Scientists and Engineers of America, the program is being used in other California school districts and was started at the district’s Capistrano Valley High School in Mission Viejo a few years ago. But this is the first time that it has been tried at one of the district’s elementary schools.

The 18-week program, which began this month, was made possible through a $1,000 grant from Southern California Edison.

Pam Watkins, a teacher and assistant principal at Crown Valley, said she hopes the program will prove successful so it can be expanded to other elementary schools in the district next year.

“It’s a real hands-on program,” Watkins said. “They’re getting a chance to get in there and do it themselves.”

The club meets once a week for an hour after school and is led by Watkins and a mentor from the community. At Crown Valley that mentor is Alan Gray, a health physics supervisor for Southern California Edison at the San Onofre Nuclear Power Station.

Since the club’s first meeting three weeks ago, Gray has been using the land yacht project to help the children learn about concepts such as friction and gravity.

“It’s actually a learning experience for me,” said Gray, who was asked to volunteer by his daughter, Abby, a student in Watkins’ class. “I’m learning as much as they are about this level of applied physics. I can run a reactor but I’m still learning about land yachts.”

For the project, pairs of students were given a small block of wood with holes drilled in it, four wooden wheels, two long wooden sticks and two short ones, a foot-square piece of aluminum foil and tape. The students were to design their own land yachts using those parts.

They were given a few tips--and this is where science came in--on such things as sanding down wheels and axles to reduce friction, or positioning sails differently to catch the breeze. They also could paint the vehicles, if they desired.

On Tuesday, the students put their creations through time trials. Next week they will have a contest to see whose goes farthest and fastest.

LaMar Toombs, training director for the Future Scientists and Engineers of America, said the program was started several years ago and is now in 80 Los Angeles and Orange County schools.

“The whole reason for this (program) was borne out of the fact that we were concerned where our future scientists and engineers would be coming from,” said Toombs, who worked the electric fan and gave advice to the children Tuesday. “For the next generation of scientists and engineers we had to get to the kids early on. Especially the girls and minority students, who have not tended to be exposed to these things.”