Our Engineering and Geometry classes visited the California Science Center to explore the Disney Pixar and Space Shuttle Endeavour exhibits.  Both exhibits provided hands on experience in the combined fields of math, science, art, and engineering. Our Belles are inspired to pursue possible career fields in STEM and see their classroom content come to life!  Below are snapshots from the trip and quotes from students in geometry about what they liked most and learned on the trip.  Thanks to our awesome Parents Association for raising money to provide transportation for these classroom trips!

“It was cool that I saw things I learned in class (graphing. triangles, etc,) and saw that it can be used for things like movies.  I never really thought about math being used like that.”

“My favorite thing was observing the building and finding all the different shapes that we learn about in geometry.”

“I saw the x and y axis when the people were drawing movie characters.  My favorite thing I saw was how they make the characters move and talk.”

“I learned that movies/everything in life deals with math and engineering.”

“My favorite thing I learned at the California Science Center was how much work is actually put into making Pixar movies and how they do it.”

“Something I learned is that they start off by drawing each scene first. They have to use scales to size up characters. It was really cool to see the process of how they create Pixar movies.”

“It’s amazing how beautiful the process of making a movie is and how it all starts with one picture.  I admire the dedication. I think it really uses math and how many angles or dimensions are needed.”

“I learned that the same tools and features I used in my engineering class last year are used to make animated movies.”

“I really enjoyed that in the Pixar exhibit they had a machine with a screen that had grass and you could customize the length, width, height, and color of your grass.”

“I think trips like this are good for our class because it is a more intimate setting and you really get to learn a lot from it.”

“I learned a lot about animation and how much much work you have to do to even get one arm moving.  There’s a lot of geometry like squares and other quadrilaterals that you have to work with.”

“One thing that I really liked was the Pixar exhibit.  It had a lot to do with geometry because you need math to figure out what time to turn on the light.”

“I really liked the games where you had to make one object look like the example they gave you.”

“I liked when we were connecting sticks trying to build a bridge.”

“Movies aren’t made easily without animations, math and/or engineering.”