Engineers Week - Middle School Day 2019
As part of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Los Angeles Younger Member Forum’s (LA YMF) Engineers Week 2019, Middle School Day was hosted on Wednesday, February 20th at Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s (LADWP) La Kretz Innovation Campus (LKIC) in the Arts District of Downtown Los Angeles. LKIC is LADWP’s newest sustainability focused facility that hosts clean-tech businesses and startups, which are approved and sponsored by the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI). The event brought together over 100 middle school students from 4 schools; Horace Mann Middle School, Muscatel Middle School, Pilgrim School, and Roy Romer Middle School. The extremely exciting day began with a welcome from Louis Ting, the Director of Power Planning Development & Engineering at Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Then the students were captivated by Michael Staab’s presentation on the Mars Rover, and his work as a NASA JPL engineer.
Students were able to put their own engineering minds to work with a paper tower building challenge, where they had to build the highest structure using only paper and tape, and then load it. Students also created their own water filtration system using everyday materials like coffee filters, cotton balls, and sponges. Students also got competitive as they built their own wind car to be powered by them blowing on it, and then putting them to the test by racing them. The students also got the chance to tour the LKIC facility, led by Marlon Calderon, and test out all the awesome exhibits the sustainable space has to offer. They got to see the living plant wall, see a smart home, test out hands on sustainability exhibits, and hear from one of the resident entrepreneurs!
ASCE LA YMF is so happy to have been able to put on another successful Engineers Week Middle School Day and would like to thank LADWP for their continued support and sponsorship of the event, and LACI for having the students at LKIC! Also, thank you to all the volunteers who help to make this event a success. We cannot wait for next year! Thank you to all the sponsors of Engineers Week and all the volunteers who take the time to inspire the next generation of engineers!
