The LA Kings and Raytheon Visit the San Pedro Boys & Girls Club

On January 10, Raytheon teamed up with the LA Kings to teach our students about the "Science of Hockey." Raytheon organized the event which combined the knowledge of their engineers with the talents of defenseman Alec Martinez and goaltender Ben Scrivens to demonstrate the science and math behind the sport to nearly 100 middle school students at our San Pedro Club. The event also celebrated Raytheon's generous $5,000 donation to improve and expand our STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) programming.

Alec Martinez coaches our students through applications of math and science.

Our students were given the opportunity to learn directly from professional athletes and Raytheon's engineers. They saw real world applications of the science and math lessons they are currently learning in school and at our Club. Former LA Kings players, Jim Fox and Daryl Evans, now media analysts for the team, kicked things off with a brief speech to our youth about the importance of the lessons they were about to experience. Exciting demonstrations of classroom lessons are very rare and unique opportunities. Events like Raytheon's "Science of Hockey," part of their MathMovesU program, inspire our students to be more engaged in their lessons and bring their studies to life.

Thanks for the generous donation to our STEM programming, Raytheon!

The LA Kings Chariot brought professional hockey equipment for the demonstration and the Ice Crew assisted as Martinez, Scrivens, Fox and Evans worked with Raytheon engineers to help students understand the teachings behind complicated hockey moves, like puck velocity. We definitely have more students interested in hockey and engineering due to the experience, and the LA Kings have many new young fans.

BODIES...The Exhibition Comes to the San Pedro Boys & Girls Club

We participated in the Great American Smokeout sponsored by the American Cancer Society on November 21 to raise awareness of the negative affects of smoking. To mark the occasion, BODIES...The Exhibition in Buena Park visited our San Pedro Boys & Girls Club middle school center for a presentation on how detrimental smoking can be to the human body. 

As a rare aspect of this type of presentation, a docent from BODIES was given permission to bring real human specimens from the exhibition to show the students first hand how smoking can damage organs and reduce life expectancy. The specimens had been prepared with polymer preservation, a process in which human tissue is permanently preserved using liquid silicone rubber. This allowed our students to get up close to the specimens and even touch them for a hands on educational experience about their health.

BODIES docent holding a transparent body slice of real human lungs to show the damage caused by smoking.

The BODIES docent presented specimens that have been damaged by smoking, including a real human brain of someone who smoked, transparent body slices showing damage to the lungs and kidneys and a set of smoker's lungs. This inspired our students to share stories of family members or other people they knew who had become sick as a result of smoking.

Our kids were given the opportunity to touch specimens that are normally only handled by doctors and medical students. Thanks to BODIES...The Exhibition our students are more aware of why they shouldn't smoke!

More information about BODIES...The Exhibition in Buena Park can be found at www.bodiestheexhibition.com/buenapark.

The BODIES specimens were prepared using polymer preservation allowing our students to learn through touch.