Amazing things are happening in classrooms around San Diego County. We've discovered one award-winning school that's training teenagers for 21st century careers.
In the pre-engineering program at Eastlake High School, students are quickly grasping digital electronics by designing and creating a safety alarm. This program received the California Educator's Golden Bell Award for its success in preparing students in the fields of engineering and technology.
"It's important for our future because the future is all about technology," one student said.
Eastlake's program was created due to a projected critical shortage of engineers. According to the federal government, the U.S. will need 15 million engineers and technology workers by the year 2020.
"We offer four classes right now. One of the classes is intro to engineering and design. Its main component is towards mechanical engineering, animatronics. But at the same time they get a feeling of computer science engineering," teacher Leonardo Ulloa said.
Students are also training in the field of robotics. The robotics team designed and built a robot to compete at state and national levels.
"We ended up in 7th place nationally, and we took all those awards home," team CEO Oliver said.
The goal is relevance - real world training in every area of engineering.
"We follow a corporate structure; there is finances and engineering, there is logistics," Oliver said.
"My indented major is nuclear engineering and I really plan to pursue that."
Females like Yasamin are trying to shatter the glass ceiling in this field.
"Not only men are capable to make creations like these, women are capable to do them," she said.
"They could be scientists, could be physicists, so that's what we are doing - exposing them to different things," Ulloa said.
It's also preparing them for careers of the 21st century.
Congratulations to 8's Cool School of the Week.
