Date posted: 03/01/2006*

On Feb. 20, 2006, as part of National Engineers Week, more than 300 middle schoolers at Space and Airborne Systems’ headquarters in El Segundo, Calif., learned firsthand about the unexpected — and often thrilling — heights that can be achieved by concentrating on math.

The event was attended by real-life celebrities, scientists and educators to help spread the word to young students that math education can lead to superstar careers. At the event, bicycle motocross superstar Dave Mirra brought his bike out for a few stunts, then led students in a BMX-related math challenge; video game designer Mark Skaggs demonstrated the key role geometry plays in creating life-like computer animation; and LEGO® robot teams and volunteers from the Traveling Space Museum gave kids tangible examples of the products of engineering.

It was all part of SAS’ MathMovesU Day, a full day’s worth of excitement and learning that kicked off Engineers Week in El Segundo and highlighted the value of math and science education.

Skaggs, a computer engineer trained at Rensselaer Polytechnic University and father of four, said he volunteered for Raytheon’s MathMovesU event “because I believe in education.” His advice for helping young students conquer the mysteries of math: “Put context around the subject and encourage students to take it one step at a time.”

Skaggs was able to provide direct context between geometry skills and the development of his interactive game “Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth,” which he revealed to be structured entirely from a series of moving triangles and rectangles. “I had a blast designing this game, but you need to know geometry and algebra and how to solve quadratic equations to do this kind of stuff,” Skaggs told the audience.

In addition to Skaggs’ “cool” demonstration, Mirra showed a video of the incredible stunts that made him the all-time leading X Games medal winner. After showing one jump that involved two rotations of his bike and one half rotation of his body, Mirra challenged the kids to tell him how many degrees in total he and the bike had turned.

After the kids worked out the problem and shouted their answers, Mirra said, “I bet you didn’t realize how much math is involved in my sport.” He encouraged the students to solve the problems and play the games offered at MathMovesU.com. “You’ll find lots of cool challenges and contests there,” he said.

The day’s other sources of inspiration were the scientists, pilots and educators from the Traveling Space Museum including scientists from NASA/JPL who traveled to Los Angeles for the day to lead hands-on demonstrations at several stations across the El Segundo South campus.

Dr. Richard Shope of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) made fractions come alive with a life-sized model of a lunar rover. Shope asked the kids to “move” from one gravitational stage to the next. “I wanted to give them the feeling of accelerating during launch, free-falling during orbit and landing on the moon with one-sixth the gravitational pull of Earth,” he explained.

Dr. Harvey Wichman, one of the designers of the International Space Station and a professor at Claremont-McKenna College, gave students concrete examples of Newton’s Third Law of Physics. Using fans, feathers and other light objects, Wichman showed that “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

At the end of the day, SAS Vice President and Chief Engineer Kevin Neifert addressed the assembled students, including children of Raytheon employees. “You know it’s important sometimes to step back and take a look at the ‘fun’ side of math,” he said. “I’m not sure what your favorite class is, but it’s exciting to see all that math can do and where it can take you, beyond the typical problem sets you think of when you think of math.”

“Consider this,” Neifert continued. “Everything you’ve done today was created and imagined by someone just like you, someone who used math to dream big and create these amazing things, from space suits to video games to robots.”

Apparently many of the students in attendance had been considering just that.

Eric Rajaniemi, a student at El Segundo Middle School and son of administrative assistant Trish Roscitto, thought it was “cool how the videogame designer has to use the same type of math that I’m learning about now in school.”

“I learned a lot today,” he said.

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