14 months ago
SACRAMENTO, CA - It's back to school for students in the Sacramento City Unified School District. Some of them will find out their teachers went to school during summer vacation.
"Pick a hole and make sure you see silver there," said Bob Twiggs as he stood in front of 10 teachers from the district's School of Engineering and Sciences.
The retired Stanford professor was teaching the teachers how to solder so they could make a buzz bot.
"This is useless except it's fun to play with," said Twiggs.
But as he explained, the tiny gadget powered by a nine-volt battery actually has a purpose.
"I'm teaching them the basics. It's the beginning of them understanding electronics. They'll be able to teach their students how to build things that are more sophisticated," Twiggs said.
Teachers hope to teach students how to produce devices that take measurements in outer space.
"This is great. They're really going to have fun with it," said science teacher Prabhjot Rai. "This will make students learn faster than they do with the traditional way of teaching."
"It's actually possible for students to build square boxes that we call cube sats (satellites)," said Twiggs. "We actually put them into space. They may even put some of their projects on board the space shuttle."
Twiggs added that perhaps some of the students will want to ride along. "You know, maybe their next step is I don't want to be an engineer. I want to be an astronaut," he said.
School officials say they opened the School of Engineering and Sciences last fall when they determined that only six percent of Sacramento's students pursue engineering and science degrees. That's down from 36 percent of the students. Experts say studies shows a dramatic increase in jobs that require math skills and scientific knowledge.
News10/KXTV
