Rocket Science

Danette Goulet

COSTA MESA -- Students squawked and staggered backward Friday,

squinting into the bright sun as rockets streaked into the afternoon sky,

leaving trails of sparks and smoke.

The break from your average, run-of-the-mill lunchtime at Costa Mesa

High School was part of national Train Your Brain Day.

“It’s just to call attention to the importance of academics and

demonstrate that science can be fun,” said Diana Carey, principal at

Costa Mesa High. “It creates an interest in the sciences.”

And teachers proved that if there’s a sure way to show youngsters that

learning is cool, teaching them how make rockets is it.

On Friday, the Math and Engineering Science Assn., or MESA, launched

about a dozen rockets made by students.

There were big rockets, small rockets, rockets that spiraled and

others that shot straight up. Some rockets had parachutes and others

never got off the ground.

Although the MESA club’s demonstration garnered the most fanfare, it

was just part of the day sponsored by UCI’s school of biological

sciences.

Students were challenged to create original posters with ideas as to

how teens might “train their brains.”

“There’s one cool poster that says ‘There’s no point to life if you

don’t train your brain,’ ” said 13-year-old student Marilyn Morgan.

Others sported slogans like “Don’t let your brain go to waste.”

Students have one week to make the posters. The best creation wins a

grand prize of $25.

Teachers attempted to raise students’ interest in the program by

challenging them with brainteasers in class all week.

“In English, we did this neat thing we’d never done before, where we

were asked the synonym of a word. It was really fun,” said student

Lindsey Navarrette, 13.

Teachers were pleased to learn that they -- and not simply the rockets

-- had sparked some interest, too.