By Charles Small, Cities United for Science Progress
May 7, 2007

Much like the start of the professional golf season each year, Cities United for Science Progress (CUSP) kicked off 2007 with two events out in Southern California.

It was a combination of a something new and something old, as CUSP worked with new Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster and outgoing Alhambra Mayor Paul Bowlen.

In Long Beach, CUSP on March 1 visited two schools, Patrick Henry and Cesar Chavez Elementary, designing and racing puff mobiles with 320 fourth graders. Cesar Chavez is one of the flagship, ultra-modern schools in the Long Beach United School District and has even had the hit CBS crime drama ‘Cold Case’ film an episode there. Several local print and television news affiliates covered the Long Beach event.

The following day, just twenty minutes down “The 91 freeway” in Alhambra, over 100 fourth graders participated in discovering who could make the best puff mobile in the city. With less than two weeks left as the head of the city, Bowlen used the time effectively to give one last message to encourage kids to pursue careers in math and science.

DuPont engineer Anna Kelly, from the Sacramento (CA) Liquid Packaging Systems plant, conducted both experiments and was impressed with the eagerness and enthusiasm displayed by the students in both cities. “It’s wonderful to see kids genuinely interested in science and engineering, I enjoyed working one-on-one with such motivated students,” said Kelly.

Across the country in Ohio, DuPont Engineer Jim Shortle of the Valley View (OH) plant participated in separate events with Cuyahoga Falls (OH) Mayor Don Robart and Walton Hills (OH) Mayor Marlene Anielski. With local press filming, Robart led 100 students from Elizabeth Price public school in the other signature CUSP experiment the gumdrop dome.

The dome uses the principles of building through triangles to create a structure stronger than the sum of its parts, which in this case are gum drops and toothpicks. The children follow along as the engineer gives step by step instructions in how to create the geodesic dome, then one by one each student stacks books on top of the dome to test its strength. Mayor Anielski also conducted the gum drop dome experiment with several third-grade students at St. Michaels Catholic School.

CUSP next traveled down South to Savannah (GA) and worked with Mayor Otis Johnson, a former Savannah—Chatham Board of Education member—and seventy Garrison elementary school students. Rebecca Rieland, the DuPont engineer on hand for the event, helped to once again led the kids in the gumdrop dome experiment.

Next month, CUSP will go back to the Midwest, returning to Oklahoma City and bringing the program to the city of Milwaukee (WI) for the first time.