July 26, 2005
Twenty-Seven Middle School Students Receiving TexPREP Completion Certificates
During Graduation Ceremony Scheduled Tomorrow Night
Summer program combines learning with fun activities centered on math, engineering
and computers
WHO: Area elementary and middle school students and their families; Dr.
Carlos Garcia, President of Del Mar College, Dr. Ann Lopez, Dean of the Division
of Arts and Sciences; Dr. Yousseff Bet Shahbaz, DMC TexPREP director and associate
professor of mathematics; and adjunct instructors Jaime Garcia, engineering,
Barry Barnett, logic, computers and math, and Nedal Shhebr, computer technology
WHAT: 2005 Graduation Ceremony for the 2005 Texas Prefreshman Engineering
Program (TexPREP) at Del Mar College
WHEN: 7 p.m., Wednesday, July 27 (Tomorrow Night)
WHERE: Wolfe Recital Hall, Fine Arts Music Building, DMC East Campus,
Ayers and Kosar (campus map available at www.delmar.edu/maps/east.html)
VISUALS: Participants viewing displays of projects–including straw
bridges, robotic cars and devices that protected eggs during a three-story drop–that
students completed during the eight-week Prefreshman Engineering Program at
Del Mar College this summer.
FYI: After eight weeks of intense, but fun, logic, computer science and
engineering activities, 27 out of 40 participating students from area schools
will receive their Certificate of Achievement Wednesday night (July 27) for
completing the Corpus Christi Prefreshman Engineering Program (PREP) at Del
Mar College.
The College serves as the local site for TexPREP and offers the free program
to talented and dedicated students who want to get a head start on high school
science and mathematics. The camp targets seventh and eighth-graders interested
in pursuing studies in engineering, science, technology and mathematics when
they attend college.
This summer, the 27 middle school students also served as mentors to 13 elementary
youth who also participated in the program.
Seventeen area schools were represented and included Baker, Browne, Cullen,
Grant, Haas, Kaffie, Martin and Wynn Seale Middle Schools and Windsor Park Elementary
from the Corpus Christi Independent School District as well as schools from
Calallen, Flour Bluff, Rockport-Fulton, Gregory-Portland and Orange Grove Independent
School Districts. Additionally, students from Gospel Lighthouse Christian School,
Bishop Garriga Middle School and Incarnate Ward Academy participated.
This year’s summer vacation for 40 local and area youth meant learning
and participating in hands-on engineering, computer programming and mathematical
problem-solving activities. Among those activities, students demonstrated how
their engineering and physics projects worked. Engineering projects highlighted
students’ building skills, including straw bridges and robotic cars that
used small motors and transmissions and demonstrated design strength and speed.
Additionally, participants designed and built devices to protect eggs that were
dropped from the third floor of the Coles Classroom Building.
Students took field trips, including a visit to the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration’s Center in Houston as well as tours to facilities
at Texas A&M University--Kingsville and the Texas Department of Transportation.
CONTACT: Dr. Yousseff Bet Shahbaz, Department of Mathematics and Physics,
at 361/698-1238 or Jaime Garcia, adjunct instructor and program assistant, at
361/698/1532
-DMC-rlr