Whiz Kids

SAN BENITO — Morriah Pinon is preparing to be an astronomer.

To do that she and other gifted and talented students in kindergarten through fifth grade at Veterans Memorial Academy in San Benito are taking part in an end-of-the-year science camp called ENCORE.

Morriah and her classmates worked together on Monday making engineering projects for kids. They were making a mousetrap race car.

Another engineering project they created using jumbo craft sticks, tape and slip syringes was a pneumatic machine to create a hydraulic process using compressed air.

During the next few days, just before the break for summer, the students at Veterans Memorial are going over lessons in engineering, medicine, crime scene investigation and biomedical sciences.

“It was really, really, really fun working with my teammates,” Morriah said.

Besides the mousetrap race car and simple pneumatic machine, her group made a bridge.

“I feel the ENCORE program is teaching me a lot of knowledge,” Morriah said. “They are working with us to learn science, technology and math and all that is going to be helpful for me to become an astronomer.”

On Thursday, the parents of the students are invited see the work the students have completed. That includes wind turbines and mechanical hands.

The students also studied the digestive system, created a heart model, performed bone analysis and studied blood spatter in a crime scene investigation.

“It’s the second year in a row we’ve had the ENCORE program and the reason it was selected is it’s related to science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics,” said Theresa Servellon, gifted and talented director for the school district.

“We want to kick it up a notch and make sure they are being challenged.”

Engaging Communities for College Readiness (ENCORE) develops and implements college and career readiness outreach programs for students.

“We found that last year our students did very well with the ENCORE camp and I feel the same thing is happening this year,” Servellon said. “They are tapping into something in each and every student that hadn’t been tapped before and igniting that interest.”

ENCORE is an initiative developed by Texas Valley Communities Foundation to increase the number of students ready to complete a post-secondary education.

“ENCORE helps students to learn about different career fields that they could go into,” said Darcie Ramirez, an ENCORE teacher.

Servellon said the goals of the camp are to promote higher education and college readiness.