NASA's "PROYECTO ACCESS" PROGRAM LIFTS OFF AT OXNARD COLLEGE
For the third straight year Oxnard College will offer an eight-week program of math, science and engineering classes for middle and high school students.
"It's more than a summer camp," said Dr. Steve Hall, Dean of Math-Science-Health at Oxnard College, quoted in a June 3 article in the Ventura County Star. "It's a program that has a track record of success."
So successful that about 267 students submitted applications to attend the program, about 100 students more than the 160 students planned for in the program's budget. Dr. Hall and program director Mark Bates, an OC math instructor, are working on fundraising efforts to accommodate as many students as possible. The estimated fundraising target of $60,000 will allow all those who applied to attend the program. The money raised will help cover the costs of additional teachers, field trip buses and lunches.
The students — who are some of the brightest students recommended by their math and science teachers from E.O Green, Blackstock, Ocean View and Rio del Valle middle schools — will study engineering, logic, algebraic structures and physics using interactive methods to solve problems and test math theories. Each week’s schedule also includes field trips off-campus to high-tech companies in the area. Last year the students also visited the Santa Paula Oil Museum, the Channel Islands Marine Research Institute, Baxter Pharmaceuticals and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech in Pasadena.
Oxnard College is one of only nine college campuses in the nation offering the program to encourage more girls and minority students to pursue math, science and engineering careers. Of the applicants to this year's program, 173 are girls and 181 students are Hispanic.
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