Science of the Times

If it weren’t for his sixth-grade teacher, astronaut Scott Horowitz said Sunday, he may never have made his first trip to space.

As a Redwood Middle School student, Horowitz showed an early interest in science and was rewarded with a note from teacher Wendell Smith that read: “To one of the future astronauts.”

“I still have the note at home in my scrap album,” said the 43-year-old astronaut.

Horowitz, who returned from a mission to fix the international space station two weeks ago, made a special trip to his hometown for the “Flyin’ High” festival at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.

The event was held to draw locals to the future site of the $63-million Ventura County Discovery Center, which organizers hope will inspire more interest among children in science and technology.

Horowitz said Americans need to nourish children’s interest in math and science to keep up with the nation’s fast-growing technology industry.

The number of Americans earning doctoral degrees in science has dramatically declined since the late 1960s when the race to the moon riveted the nation, Horowitz said.

“You need an outlet for kids to go for science and technology,” he said. “The payoff for that is about 20 years later. It’s not an instant payoff.”

Students at Redwood Middle School feel they have found that outlet in teacher Craig Fox.

Eighth-graders Benji Caya and Anton Bouckaert said Fox helped them realize they preferred experimenting and tinkering with gadgets rather than playing video games.

“I’d rather build something because when you’re done, you can play with it and then you know you built it yourself,” Benji said. “It takes a lot more work, but it’s better than working out of a book.”

At Sunday’s festival, the boys showed off their model tram cars made from scraps found around the house. They took turns sending the cars down a wire tied between two posts.

The model was an assignment from Fox, who wanted to inspire students to think about decreasing traffic congestion.

“When you let kids take control of their learning, magic happens,” Fox said. “I’ve had parents call and complain that their kids are working too much on the weekends.”

Nearby, other students launched basketballs from a trebuchet, a catapult originally used in medieval times as a weapon.

On the grassy property that eventually will house the 110,000-square-foot science and technology center, kids crowded around a miniaturized rocket launching station.

They shot plastic two-liter soda bottles into the air using a launcher made from an air compressor, a bike tire pump and a piece of plywood.

Nearby, another group of children made airplane gliders and made giant bubbles using a few bundled sticks and a panful of soap.

The festival also included various displays and demonstrations of small aircraft, flying objects and gadgets--including a deflated hot-air balloon, boomerangs and model planes.

The Experimental Aircraft Assn. showed off one of its small planes. And deputies wowed the kids with the robot that detonates bombs for the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.

Although the new center isn’t built yet and the groundbreaking is still months away, Sunday’s event was a milestone for dozens of Ventura County Discovery Center volunteers, educators and board members.

“As a kid, I was always experimenting,” said Linda Organ, the center’s director of education. “And I just don’t think kids have that experience today, so I wanted to create it.”

Members of the nonprofit group of science enthusiasts have entertained and educated local students, club members and business owners with science demonstrations, workshops and exhibits since 1994.

The center is expected take up to seven years to build.

The first phase, a $13-million project that will include a 270-seat theater to show panoramic three-dimensional movies and a 3,000-square-foot museum, is scheduled to open by March 2002.

“Our goal is to take science and make it fun and make it friendly,” Organ said.

“Everyone that’s involved in this project has a giant hunk of kid inside them.”