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Gathered on a university softball field, 31 high school students wore T-shirts Thursday declaring, "As amatter of fact, I AM a rocket scientist." Then they proved it. All 31 had a blast-literally and figuratively as they successfully launched their homemade rockets during the culmination of a four-week Illinois Institute of Technology summer program. The program worked like a charm on Giles Travis, 14, an incoming freshman at St. Rita High School. Giles won the day's top honor for coming closest to a 60-meter rocket height (his soared 59.7 meters). But he also walked away dreaming of a career at NASA. "This is something to look at-building rockets," Giles said. That's exactly the goal of IIT's Discovery Approach to Science program-or DASH. It was started in 1992 as one of the university's efforts to encourage minorities to pursue careers in math, science and engineering. About 80 percent of DASH's participants are minority students. Teens with at least B averages in math and science may apply with a teacher recommendation for the free program, funded this year with $25,000 in contributions. During their four weeks at IIT, students traveled to Great America to calculate the speed of six rides; studied velocity in IIT's wind tunnels, and used toy cars to track the impact-of inclines on acceleration. It's all intended to show that math, science and engineering "can be a lot of fun," said IIT Professor John Kallend, a materials engineer by profession who makes rockets, constructs model airplanes from scratch and flies his own plane in his free time. Marist High School's Joe Kelly, 15, was convinced. "I loved it!" Joe said Thursday after watching other rockets spiral into the air while his own took a straight, clean shot upward. "It went straight up. I loved the stability of it." Each rocket had its own unique look and length (generally around two feet) because "in engineering, there's no single right answer. There's an infinite variety of answers," said Kallend, dean of IIT's undergraduate college. |
Aisha Martin, 15, of Morgan Park High School, painted her rocket shocking pink, orange, green and blue-only to win a "best paint job" award.Her father, Bob Martin, said every morning "I could see her enthusiasm for the program. I said one day, "What are they giving away down there-diamond nuggets?"; Aisha had planned on being a teacher, like her mother. until she attended DASH. "If I try hard enough, I could be anything," she said." A rocket scientist, an astronaut--anything." |
[DASH] [EID] [Bridge] [Prof. Johnson] [Prof J., BCPS] [NewsArticles]
