This Competition IS Rocket Science

Middle schoolers and missiles may not seem like the safest combination.

But at a science competition Wednesday sponsored by the Port Hueneme Surface Warfare Center Division on Naval Base Ventura County, 80 students from 11 local schools proved the two can mix -- and without even poking anyone’s eye out.

Working with an engineer from the surface warfare division and using materials such as cardboard tubes, plastic water bottles and packing tape, five-student teams competed to construct projectile “missiles” that they shot with blasts of compressed air from a makeshift “vertical launch system.”

The event, part of National Engineers Week, was meant to bring hands-on application to math and science concepts the students are learning in their classrooms.

It was also designed to inspire an interest in the young teenagers in careers in engineering, possibly at the Navy base, organizers said.

“If they have an interest in science and engineering, this is an opportunity for them to stay in the community they grew up in,” said Jeanne Schick, public affairs officer for the Port Hueneme division.

“We thought this was a great idea to share what we do with the community.”

For the most part, students were thoroughly impressed.

“I think this is really cool,” said Luis Balderrama, an eighth-grader at Mesa Union School near Somis.

Adjusting the cardboard fins that he planned to affix to his group’s missile, he said building model rockets is one of his favorite hobbies.

“This is incredibly fun for me -- doing it during class time,” Luis said.

Across the room, Blackstock School seventh-grader Isis Benitez helped put the finishing touches on an aluminum-foil-covered missile that her group was preparing to test.

“Who knows -- maybe this is what I want to do when I grow up,” she said. “It’s fun, interesting and it’s creative. I really like it.”

Despite the focus on science and competition, some students said they couldn’t help but relate what they were doing to world events, particularly a possible war with Iraq using missile weapons.

“Coming here brings me a little closer to that reality,” said Anthony Zarate, an eighth-grader at Rio de Valle Middle School in Oxnard. “It makes me have mixed feelings about it.”

One of his teammates, Daniel Samimi, said preparation for war was also on his mind.

“Doing this brings out what engineers actually do to help defend this country,” he said.

Teachers who took part in the event said they weren’t worried that the exercise might endorse any impending military action.

“What they’re stressing is all the science that goes into it, rather than the weapon part,” said Ron Boutain, a science teacher at Anacapa Middle School in Ventura.

Thad Robbins, a math and science teacher at Los Altos Middle School in Camarillo, agreed.

“These are principles of flight and center of gravity that are important to learn,” he said. “There are many applications, with weapons systems being just one.”

But the students’ projects did tie in with the Navy’s efforts to develop deployable antiballistic missiles, said Gerald Stutts, an engineer helping with the program.

Their assignment, after all, was to build a missile with a warhead that could hit a specific target on a giant, missile-shaped piece of paper laid out in front of the launcher.

“This problem relates to exactly what we’re doing in real life,” Stutts said.

None of the youngsters’ missiles hit the intended mark, but Los Primeros Structured School in Camarillo came the closest, winning first prize -- $30 gift certificates to a bookstore.