By Aliza Zaidi

Town Crier Editorial Intern

When Los Altos High School opened its doors this week it marked the introduction of the Math Education Collaborative for juniors, a prerequisite for the new “pre-engineering” classes to be offered next fall for seniors.

Part of the program’s structure comes from the Higher Education Collaborative, which consists of the University of California at Santa Cruz, San Jose State University and Foothill and De Anza colleges.

HEC combines forces with NASA/AMES to enhance the high school algebra and physics curricula hoping to draw underrepresented students deeper into mathematics, science and engineering.

Funding for the curriculum advancement program is partially provided by California Academic Partnership Program.

The four teachers include Adam Randall and Leo Florendo. Both have previous high school teaching experience with the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District.

Nicolas Fiori of Foothill College and Hassan Bourgoub of De Anza College will collaborate with the high school teachers.

“The point of this class is to give exposure to students to different fields of engineering,” Florendo said.

“Many of the topics in the areas of math and physics are motivated by the workstations and modules which currently exist at NASA/AMES as well as new modules being developed by the team,” Randall said.

Work will start soon on the pre-engineering curriculum which will eventually be incorporated into the 12th-grade curriculum.

This addition opens educational opportunities to successful students in the 11th-grade enhanced course. “Students will be offered paid internships at NASA/AMES or local industry in the summer between 11th and 12th grades,” Randall said.

“Students will also be offered the opportunity of visiting Foothill and De Anza colleges, and meeting with math, science and engineering faculty,” he added. For information, call 942-4650.