MIDDLE SCHOOL DAY - Wednesday February 19, 2020
As part of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Los Angeles Younger Member Forum’s (LA YMF) Engineers Week 2020, Middle School Day was hosted on Wednesday, February 19th 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 UCLA Community School, Lincoln Middle School, Madison Middle School, and Hollenbeck Middle School. The extremely exciting day began with a welcome from Greg Huynh, a Power Engineering Manager at Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Next, the students were captivated by Michael Staab’s presentation on the Mars 2020 rover, and his work as a NASA JPL engineer.
Students were able to put their own engineering minds to work by creating 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 were able to tour the LKIC facility, led by Marlon Calderon, and test out all of 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!