Long Beach Unified School District: Engineering Day Reaches 22 Schools

From the Long Beach Unified School District:

March 18, 2020

Students from the Sato Academy of Mathematics and Science visited fifth graders at 22 local elementary schools recently to share some hands-on engineering activities.

The annual Engineering Day event introduces elementary students to the art and science of designing tin-foil boats to hold cargo, creating wind-powered vehicles, and testing air-powered rockets, among other projects. The aim is to help the elementary students understand the importance of science, technology, math and engineering, and their application to problem solving.

Among the participating students was Sato senior Guillermo Molina, who reported on the Engineering Day event while serving as the student representative at a recent Long Beach Unified School District Board of Education meeting.

“Being able to take part in Sato's Elementary Engineering day was extremely rewarding. Not only did we get to give back to our Long Beach schools, but we got to provide younger students with the opportunity to experience something they might not have the chance to at home or during normal instruction. I think this is particularly beneficial to minority and low-income students who might need that extra and early exposure to get more involved in STEM education and careers,” Molina said.

“It was awesome seeing the wonder and excitement in the fifth graders’ eyes as they tested their paper hoop gliders and stomp rockets,” Molina continued. “Even better was coming back together as a group to go through the engineering design process and working with each other to come up with better designs. Hopefully having fun with Sato engineers now will convince them to come to our school in the future, as potential students.”

This press release was produced by the Long Beach Unified School District. The views expressed here are the author’s own.