Date posted: 02/24/2010*

Raytheon’s MathMovesU program celebrated National Engineers Week Feb. 15-19 by promoting innovative ways to teach math and science. At Sum of all Thrills™ at INNOVENTIONS at Epcot® at the Walt Disney World® Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., the company held a series of interactive and hands-on events for middle school students.

Raytheon engineers Justa and Rudy Trevino (NCS), Thanh-Thuy Nguyen (SAS) and Larry Wasielewski (RMS) hosted a series of fun-filled demonstrations using fundamental engineering and mathematical principles throughout the week.

Engaging Experiments
Hundreds of students exclaimed with delight and surprise as the engineers helped them polish pennies on Presidents Day. They demonstrated how acids in common foodstuff such as lemon juice, cola and vinegar, have varying effects for removing oxide build-up that can be easily rubbed away to reveal a coin that sparkles.

Patiently Waiting for Pennies to Polish

Another experiment, aptly titled “Outrageous Ooze,” a mixture of tiny, solid particles of cornstarch suspended in water, demonstrated the principles of colloids and viscosity, or resistance to flow. Kids of all ages were stymied by the question, “Is Outrageous Ooze a liquid or a solid?” and had great fun discovering the mixture’s properties.

A third experiment, “Did you know water has skin?,” focused on water surface tension and the principles of hydrogen bonding. A science teacher from the Orlando area remarked to RMS volunteer Larry Wasielewski, “Thank you for inspiring and engaging students one-on-one, getting them interested in math and science.” And the second-grader said it best when she said aloud, “I want to be an engineer when I grow up.” Her parents were standing nearby and shared that their daughter has always been fascinated by science, “possessing that curiosity all engineers have.”

Glowing Feedback
“What an opportunity to meet local students, but also students from around the world,” said the Trevinos, a husband and wife team who also give of their time to participate in MathMovesU activities at local elementary and middle schools and at external science fairs and conferences. Justa and Rudy were especially impactful on a group of high school girls from Argentina, speaking to them in their native Spanish. The students were so amazed with “Outrageous Ooze” that they introduced their teacher and copied down step-by-step instructions so they could learn how to replicate the experiment for their classmates back home.

Special thanks go out to the Raytheon employee volunteers for sharing their passion and interest in STEM education.

Thanh-Thuy observed, “Engineering is all around you! It’s contagious, reach out and catch it!”

Since its inception in 2005, Raytheon’s MathMovesU program has touched the lives of more than 1 million students, teachers and parents in an effort to help engage students in math and science.

“Imagine if each Raytheon engineer would go out to the community and excite a group of students in math and science on a continuous basis — just imagine the outcome,” expressed Rudy Trevino.

In addition to the events at Epcot, there were more than 25 demonstrations and events scheduled throughout the country last week for middle and high school students.