Bottle rocket launches and a robotics competition made EC’s Space Science Day, which took place on Saturday, a success.

Hundreds of students from local junior high and elementary schools came out this past weekend to learn about the many different features of aerospace.

“It was very entertaining and my son seemed to be learning a lot from the lectures and really enjoyed himself,” Lynn Sanders, a Torrance local, said.

The annual event honors Astronaut Ellison Onizuka’s memory and is dedicated to his dream of inspiring the youth of America to strive for and achieve their career goals.

“We’ve had this event for nine years now. We try to get all students from the fifth grade to some high school students to come learn about Space Science Day and experience a college campus as well,” Robin Dreizler, outreach and school relations director, said.

One of the popular “breakout sessions” of the event was the “Let’s do a Launch,” taught by sixth-grade teacher Barbara Roth of Saint Catherine Laboure Catholic School.

“We teach the students about rockets, fuel, and pressure, and we use recycled plastic bottles to demonstrate how it all works,” says Roth.

Each one of Roth’s students got to launch a bottle rocket.

The higher the bottle went up the more excited the students were as they saw their projects launch in the air.

“The students really enjoy it and so do I, I’ve been a part of this for nine years and every year there seems to be a greater amount of students in my class.This year I had fifty students when I’m only allowed thirty six,” Roth said.

Another type of event that had dozens of students lining up was a lecture about the various planets and stars around the planet Earth, which took place in the campus Planetarium.

“It was cool for the students it was really dark so they got to see the stars and planets in a different view, more up and close,” Maria Juarez, of La Mirada, said.

There was also a information booth provided by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) that had many students lined up to learn about the many careers in aerospace.

“I’m here to provide some information for students who maybe want a career in Aerospace, and to tell them about some of the great programs that they can be apart of at any age that can help prepare them for those types of careers,” Eric Gerver of AIAA said.

The booth not only provided information, it also provided some stomp rockets to help explain the company’s motto “A career in Aerospace: It is rocket science and much more.”

Dianna Minaya of American Honda Motor Company said that Space Science Day had a good turnout for the students and the staff.

“It was good to see that parents were just enthusiastic as the students were and were willing to corporate with us in organizing each class and making sure everyone had a ticket; it was great,” Minaya said.