Rocket Contest Lets Kids Reach for Stars

Shouting “Girls rule!” may be frowned upon in Mission Control, so budding rocket scientists Rachel Barge and Brighton Kindred had better enjoy themselves now.

The pair, 11-year-old sixth-graders at Ole Hanson Elementary School in San Clemente, were exulting over the success of GI Janes, a rocket fashioned from a two-liter soda bottle and named after their chapter of the Future Scientists and Engineers of America.

They were among about 150 students from elementary, middle and high schools throughout Orange County who competed Saturday in the Future Scientists’ second annual rocket competition, staged at Tustin High School.

Although her rocket stayed aloft for nearly 18 seconds, the day’s best for the middle school category, Rachel was not particularly fond of it.

“I hate this rocket,” she said. “The strings get all tangled and the parachute keeps tangling and the fins keep falling off. But it won.”

The students built their own rockets, using twine and garbage bags for parachutes, then shot them skyward using air pressure supplied by a bicycle pump.

The exercise gives them a chance to experiment with designs and apply the math and science concepts they’ve learned in school, said Future Scientists founder George Westrom, a former Rockwell and Ford Aerospace engineer who now works for Odetics, a data-storage company in Anaheim.

“Engineering and science are fun; it isn’t punishment,” he said. “We try to answer for the kid the question, ‘Why do we need to learn this?’ ”

The Future Scientists program is in 60 of Orange County’s 700 schools, and 12 states besides California. About 10,000 kids nationwide have been through the program since Westrom started it seven years ago.

The program’s benefactors range from aerospace giant McDonnell-Douglas to small local businesses, said Keith Brush, the Future Scientists’ national president and general manager. Saturday’s winners received Genesis and Saturn video game systems donated by Sega.

Westrom created the program to increase the number of Americans in college engineering and science courses, and in particular to help spur the interest of at-risk youths, minorities and girls.

“The kids love it,” said David Robinson, mentor of the Future Scientists program at Ole Hanson and a manager for Unisys Corp. “All you have to do is show them how fun science can be and stand back and watch them attack the projects. We really want kids to enjoy science and math.”

Andy Chou, 17, a senior at Aliso Niguel High School in Aliso Viejo, tinkered with the nosecone on his rocket Saturday, trying to ensure that the parachute would not deploy too soon or not at all.

“When you’re doing it, you see what’s wrong and you fix it,” said Andy, who wants to be a civil or industrial engineer. His rocket placed second in the high-school division.

Flush with the success of his own rocket, 12-year-old Eric Salgado of Marine View Middle School in Huntington Beach said, “I wanted to be a lawyer, but since I saw this, it was, ‘Forget being a lawyer.’ ”