Getting the Drop on Engineers

Using a Dixie cup, bubble wrap, string and masking tape, middle school students Thursday tried to defy gravity. Their task: protect an egg from cracking when dropped from 12 feet in the air.

The physics lesson was one of many taught to students attending the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Conference in Anaheim. A few student and professional engineers also explained how they chose the field and encouraged the young scientists to keep working hard.

“It’s great,” said Jeffrey Orellana, 11, a seventh-grader at Spurgeon Intermediate School in Santa Ana. “Today I learned that engineering can sometimes be easy--and fun.”

Eighty of the 120 students who attended the conference belong to Cal State Fullerton MESA (Mathematics, Engineering Science Achievement), a program that encourages disadvantaged youths to attend college and pursue careers in math and science. The program serves 1,500 students in 16 Orange County junior high and high schools. In 1996-97, 90% of MESA high school graduates went on to college, said MESA Director Vonna Hammerschmitt.

“We work with educationally disadvantaged kids who usually don’t have anybody in their family who’s gone to college,” she said. “We open the idea of going to college for them.”

Eager eyes followed the egg-drop containers as they fell to the ground. The Dixie cup parachute designed by Jeffrey, Giovanie Gomez, Humberto Gonzalez, Alice Recinos and Juan Sandoval had a safe landing.

“They were laughing, thinking it wouldn’t work, but it did,” Jeffrey said with a grin. “Look who’s laughing now.”