MUKILTEO — Fact and fantasy made for an inspiring mix at the Future of Flight this week.
As adults milled about Wednesday in “Star Wars” garb that looked like it came straight from the movies, high school students from this galaxy — Mountlake Terrace, to be exact — showcased real-life rockets and robots, proof they’re on a path to take over as the next generation of engineers and scientists.
They came for the Future of Flight’s sixth annual Family STEAM Night — an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics. Many schools use the acronym STEM, which is the same thing minus the arts.
“We’re showing them that it’s not just about math and all of the hard stuff — engineering is fun, math is fun,” said Cole Goodnight, 17, the leadership president for Mountlake Terrace’s STEM Program. “It plants the seed. It gets them interested at a young age.”
Cole was talking about encouraging his fellow Terrace students, but his comments could have applied to Wednesday’s event as well.
The nonprofit Institute of Flight organized it. All 1,400 free tickets were snapped up by 5:30 p.m., when activities got started at the Future of Flight facility on the west side of Paine Field. More than 30 groups and institutions participated.
Centers of higher learning came to tout technical fields. They included Washington State University Everett, Edmonds Community College and the University of Washington Applied Physics Lab.
Hobbyists gave people a taste of building model airplanes, flying drones and making LEGO-themed creations. Aerospace manufacturing firms were there, too.
A group of authentic-looking “Star Wars” villains posed for photos. Garrison Titan is the official Washington state branch of the 501st Legion, an international “Star Wars” fan club and charitable organization. These movie bad-guys are out to do good.
Another troupe of “Star Wars” fans known as Jet City Temple did a dance performance. They’re part of the Saber Guild, which describes itself as a “not-for-profit, Lucasfilm-recognized Star Wars costuming group.”
Mountlake Terrace students had several booths for the school’s STEM Program. There are three pathways: aerospace engineering; biotechnology and engineering; and computer science and engineering. The program and related clubs have helped many students thrive in those fields.
The school’s robotics team made it to the world championships last year. There’s another team of competitive rocket-builders.
Austin Thiessen, 16, a junior, explained how they aim to send rockets precisely 800 feet into the air in 42 to 44 seconds. That’s not the only challenge: They also load the rocket tube with Grade A Large eggs.
“They have to survive the entire duration of the launch,” Austin said.
In competition, they might be ordered to lower the maximum altitude at a moment’s notice. They can do that by adding Velcro strips on the exterior to create drag or loading bolts inside as dead weight.
Tom Corcoran, a structural engineer with Integrus Architecture in Seattle, lends time to teach Terrace students. He and his colleagues volunteer through the Structural Engineers Association of Washington.
“We have a shortage of structural engineers in our society,” Corcoran said. “ We can’t hire anybody here. Even if we go out of state, we can’t find good, qualified engineers.”
Corcoran helped on a bridge-building project to teach about truss design. He got students to build a 6-foot-long bridge, rather than the small model they had been working on.
Employees from the Boeing Co., Philips Healthcare, Intermec, CH2M Hill and Fluke Corp. also have worked with Terrace students, said Craig DeVine, the school’s STEM program coordinator.
The cerebral celebration at Future of Flight coincided with International Pi Day. The Greek letter Π represents the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, a mathematical constant. Written numerically, March 14 corresponds to three, one and four, the first numerals in pi. Pi starts with 3.14159265 and goes on for an infinite number of decimal places.
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465; nhaglund@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @NWhaglund.
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