In front of a poster photo of his late wife, NASA Dryden flight test engineer Marta Bohn-Meyer, Bob Meyer chats with two of the winners of the Bridge Building competition during the Science Olympiad, Stephanie Rodriguez and William Ulla, both from Lincoln Elementary School in Lancaster.
Learn by Doing: The Bohn-Meyer Science Olympiad
Almost 300 elementary and middle school students participated in a hands-on application of science, technology, engineering and mathematics during the Bohn-Meyer Science Olympiad May 12 at Antelope Valley College in Lancaster, Calif.
Sponsored by the college in cooperation with NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, the AERO Institute and Lockheed-Martin Corporation, the Science Olympiad featured eight competitions designed to give the students practical application of the science and math lessons learned in the classroom. The eight activities included Bridge Building, Anatomy, Crime Busters, Egg-O-Naut, Mystery Architecture, Trajectory, Reach for the Stars and Write It, Do It.
Students were gathered into 16 teams that rotated through the eight activities or competitions scattered throughout the college campus during the Saturday morning event.
Formerly known as the Bohn-Meyer Math and Science Odyssey, the event is named in honor of the late Marta Bohn-Meyer, who worked in a variety of engineering, flight-test and management positions during a quarter-century career at NASA Dryden prior to her untimely death in the crash of a private aerobatic airplane in 2005. Her husband, Robert R. "Bob" Meyer, who recently retired from NASA after a 40-year engineering and management career at Dryden, was on hand to offer welcoming remarks and present awards to the winners of the various competitions at the conclusion of the Saturday morning event.
Held in cooperation with the Southern California State Science Olympiad, the Bohn-Meyer Science Olympiad was intended to encourage students to continue their studies in math, science, engineering and technology and promote career interest in those fields.
NASA photos by Tom Tschida
|Students watch in rapt anticipation as an adult advisor carefully attaches a bucket filled with 25 lbs. of sand to the |
center of their popsicle-stick bridge during a stress test. Moments later, they react to the result as the bridge snaps
in two under the weight during the Science Olympiad's Bridge Building contest.
Alan Brown, Public Affairs
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center