TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

In a Fruitvale Junior High classroom sit 30 potential scientists and engineers.

"If you're an engineer, do you need math skills?" asked Alex Lanctot, an English teacher and now science educator.

"Yes," students replied in unison.

"Do you need technology?"

"Yes."

"Do you need science?"

"Yes."

"What is science?" Lanctot asked.

"The greatest thing known to man," student Joseph Kent replied aloud.

"Good answer," Lanctot said, chuckling.

The brand new class, "Introduction to gateway to technology," is the only one of its kind in Kern County middle schools.

This school year the seventh-graders will design three-dimensional models on computers, make racecars that run on carbon dioxide cartridges and learn about STEM -- science, technology, engineering and mathematics -- career fields.

In eighth grade they'll learn about robotics. In high school they'll take courses like "Introduction to engineering design," "Principles of engineering," "Civil engineering" and "Engineering design and development."

Course officials hope the kids will study science or engineering in college and return to Kern County to work. It's all part of Project Lead the Way, a nonprofit educational program growing across the country.

The program kicked off last year at Centennial High School. It expanded this year to Fruitvale plus Bakersfield, Highland and Golden Valley high schools.

So who is footing the more than $100,000 bill to run the program? Who might benefit from grooming future engineers and scientists in the solar, wind and hydro industries, for example?

"Chevron is committed to investing in education where we live and work," said company spokesman Adam Alvidrez.

PROJECT IN KERN

Project Lead the Way started in 1998 at a dozen high schools in New York. Now there are programs at more than 4,000 middle and high schools throughout America that enroll more than 350,000 students.

More than 235 California middle and high schools are signed up.

Courses satisfy college requirements and students can get college credit. Research shows enrolled students do significantly better on standardized tests and are more apt to study STEM fields in college.

The Project came to the attention of Centennial Principal Steve Wedel during a conference about closing achievement gaps and he talked to Bruce Westermo, a California affiliate-director with the project.

With Chevron, a corporation that has partnered in recent years with schools in Bakersfield, it "was just the perfect opportunity for us," Westermo said.

Wedel said he mulled the idea with other educators here and saw if students might be interested, too. More than 100 students signed up for two periods the first year.

About 230 are enrolled in Project Lead the Way classes at five local campuses.

CHALLENGING CLASS

In February, Chevron gave the five local schools $118,000 to fund curriculum and for a four-year commitment. It came as schools were having to make budget cuts.

The new classes required teachers to take a rigorous college-level course in Southern California. The class, usually semester-long, was condensed to just two weeks. Educators worked from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and had five hours of homework each day, said Roger Steelman, Bakersfield High's teacher.

One recent day, each student in Steelman's freshman "Introduction to engineering design" class sat at an architect's drafting desk. A mix of boys and girls of all races filled the seats (school officials want a diverse group).

During one class, students drew designs for an innovative beverage container. Some had a Blu-ray player and high definition screen attached. Another group designed its with an electrical magnet that when shaken could warm or cool the liquid inside.

"Very ingenious," Steelman told the students. "You wouldn't have to use a refrigerator or microwave."

Another student chimed in: "What if you have soda in the container? You can't shake that."

The students chuckled -- back to the drawing board.

"This class is an excellent opportunity for young people," Steelman said. "It's a pathway to all sorts of careers."

Stefanaine Zaragoza, one of the handful of girls in the class, called the course "the most challenging" she's had. But she enjoys the challenge and wants to one day build airplanes.

Malik Newell said he got into engineering after taking a summer robotics course at Bakersfield College (also funded by Chevron). "I'll make it big time," Newell said. "I'd like to make my mother a house, or even a new car."

CREATING A PIPELINE

Colin Smith has the first "Principles of engineering" class in Kern, which students will take their second year in high school. Recently, students were experimenting with levers and pulleys, building and testing Lego-like structures.

Smith said students this year will interview with engineers to learn about local industries and participate in engineering competitions. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, overall job opportunities in engineering are "expected to be good" and grow by 11 percent in the next decade.

Cal State Bakersfield leaders for years have been trying to start an engineering school to create a local pipeline of workers. The state is hesitating to give CSUB the money because there are engineering schools with open slots at nearby Fresno State and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, President Horace Mitchell said.

However, CSUB has a proposal for a computer engineering concentration, which could be a starting point.

In the meantime, Chevron has also given hundreds of thousands of dollars toward REVS-UP, a research program that connects local high school students and teachers with CSUB professors.

That program, along with Project Lead the Way, are certainly grooming scientists here for STEM careers, said Carl Kemnitz, CSUB dean of undergraduate and graduate studies at the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.

"I think that the (Project) curriculum is a strong, hands-on engineering and technology curriculum for high school students," Kemnitz said. "CSUB would like to be able to pick up where they leave off and provide the area with home-grown talent."

The way Chevron sees it, "The sooner students can become interested and gain an appreciation for those career options, the more prepared they will be to enter California's workforce," Alvidrez said.

That's why officials started a course at Fruitvale Junior High. Students will likely feed into Centennial's program.

Josh McGowan, a seventh-grader in the class, said he plans to stay in the program through high school and beyond. He wants to build structures.

"It's really interesting," he said. "We're learning how engineering plays a role in everyday life."

So far, teacher Lanctot likes what he sees. Students in class are involved and see there are achievable careers out there, that they can reach for something besides becoming a professional skateboarder or athlete, for example.

"The kids need a target or a goal," he said. "There's not a lot of dreaming here. They can do it."