Pacific students will showcase their work and demonstrate the skills they have learned In Design and Engineering on February 24. This will be an opportunity for them to share with parents and staff the design and creation of little people furniture, a game they created, "Crazy Puzzles," scale drawings, and other work.

Teacher Sandy Gady, commented, "You will have the opportunity to play their games, sit in some of their furniture, and experience the journey they took as they created these pieces. They have worked hard and are anxious to share."

The class, new this year, employs mathematical and scientific concepts in hands-on ways that engage the students. Eighth-grader Andrew Baca says, "Design and Engineering is a place where learning and thinking can be fun. We are working on making our own toy. It's not as easy as it sounds - the toy must include some kind of game as well. We are designing and building games like Operation, Aggravation, or Mousetrap."

His perspective is echoed by eighth-grader Jason McGlothern, "There are so many different activities in this class such as building bridges with spaghetti, making little people furniture, and analyzing data of animals made of a substance called polymer. You see kids in class using both a triple beam balance to measure the mass of an animal and calipers to measure length, height, and width of them." He went on to say, "Some students may think science and math are boring, but in this class, you may not realize you are even using it. The main focus of this class is to collect data and analyze it, as well as write conclusions."