Students from Hueneme High School work on their dry spaghetti bridge projects during at CSU Channel Islands on July 11. Photo courtesy of CSU Channel Islands.
CAMARILLO — Students from Hueneme High School celebrated their completion of four challenging weeks of college-level engineering courses at CSU Channel Islands (CI) by breaking bridges they’ve worked hard to build during the “CI Spaghetti Bridge Competition and Celebration.”
The 40 seniors participated in the Engineering Design Career Pathways Summer Academy (EDCP) held July 11 at the university, the university reported in a media release.
The students learned which team’s bridge built from dry spaghetti held up longest in test of strength and engineering. The bridge competition is part of a Culminating Celebration for students, parents, school and community partners held at the university’s Broome Library Plaza. The students earned awards from government officials and shared with their families new skills, confidence and aspirations for engineering learning and careers.
The bridge breaking was one of the many exercises students engage in during the EDCP Summer Academy – a joint effort of Hueneme High School, the Ventura County P-20 Council, and CSU Channel Islands. The free, grant-funded program exposes underrepresented students to a pre-college engineering program, advances skills in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), and encourages participants to pursue engineering degrees and careers.
“Everything I learn is new and surprising,” Hueneme High School senior Rosio Villalpando stated in the release. Villalpando hopes to study civil engineering in college. “I’m learning from an actual professor at a university level about physics, the uncertainties of numbers, vectors, and new math skills. At school, I thought engineering was all done on computers. Now I have learned that it’s about using your mind and knowledge to build things and solve problems; it’s a new experience.”
Students from Hueneme High School admire the dry spaghetti bridge projects during at CSU Channel Islands on July 11. Photo courtesy of CSU Channel Islands.
“I like that I get to do activities with my friends and the teachers are very helpful,” said Jennifer Ambriz, a Hueneme High senior who hopes to become an architectural engineer. “I am getting a feeling for what engineers actually do and how math fits in.”
The Academy ran from June 16 through July 11. Participants studied a college-level physics curriculum, conducted vector and torque lab experiments, presented results, built and tested bridges, networked with professional engineers, and took field trips to museums, universities and science-related sites. The activities helped them gain critical engineering, problem-solving and communication skills they can apply in future studies and careers.
“The EDCP Summer Bridge programs afford students the opportunity to experience learning from university professors and to become comfortable on a college campus,” said CI President Richard R. Rush, who also serves as Chair of the Ventura County P-20 Council. “The EDCP program, which promotes a college-going culture and interest in engineering and other STEM disciplines, is a successful example of strong regional collaboration among organizations, businesses, career professionals, K-12, colleges and universities, and the Ventura County P-20 Council. These students are the future of our region and together we are supporting their dreams and building a stronger community for us all.”
Prior to the Culminating Celebration, students were scheduled to participate in a panel discussion with professional engineers and take a guided tour of the CI campus with their parents.
At the Culminating Celebration students were scheduled to put the finishing touches on their bridges, tested how much weight they can hold in a competition, made a special presentation to their parents, receive awards from elected officials, and hear from speakers including Provost Gayle Hutchinson and their instructors, CI Professor Gregory Wood and Hueneme High teachers Bob Kadin and Jay Robnett.
Students in the summer academy are participants in a rigorous, three-year program at Hueneme High School, designed to stimulate their interest and aptitude in engineering. They apply for the program as ninth graders.
“Over the past two years, we’ve seen more than 200 students make great leaps in their skills and ambitions as a result of their participation in EDCP,” said Richard Duarte, Project Coordinator for the P-20 Council. “Nearly 80 percent of them decide to go on to college and nearly 70 percent aspire to attend graduate school. Those are great outcomes for the students and for Ventura County.”
This year’s Summer Bridge program is generously sponsored by Bank of America and The Alliance for Regional Collaboration to Heighten Educational Success (ARCHES), as well as the Ventura County P-20 Council, Hueneme High School and CSU Channel Islands.
For more information, contact Gregory Wood, Associate Professor of Physics, at 805-437-3293 or gregory.wood@csuci.edu; Melissa Remotti, Executive Analyst to the President, at 805-437-8410 or melissa.remotti@csuci.edu; or Richard Duarte, P-20 Project Coordinator, at 805-890-8373 or rduarte10@roadrunner.com.