How Do You Build A Better Car? With Mousetraps! 
U.VA. HOSTS MATH AND SCIENCE ENRICHMENT PROGRAM FOR STUDENTS AND
TEACHERS

	Snap! Snap! Snap! 

	That's the sound that will echo through the University of
Virginia's Memorial Gym next Tuesday morning as 150 model cars --
built from mousetraps -- streak across the floor. 

	Beginning at 8 a.m., on Tuesday, June 24, 150 gifted minority
high school students from throughout the Mid-Atlantic will compete in
a national mousetrap contest, held at U.Va. and sponsored by U.Va.'s
School of Engineering and Applied Science, and by SECME, which stands
for Science, Engineering, Communication, Mathematics, Enrichment.  The
students have built model cars (approximately four inches x two
inches) from mousetraps and other materials. The cars are propelled by
the traps closing.  The lightest cars that go the farthest win.

	The contest caps a four-day seminar (June 21-24) for high
school students, organized under the auspices of SECME, which works to
increase the number of minority students prepared to enter and
complete college studies in science, mathematics, engineering and
technology. 

	At the same time, U.Va.'s School of Engineering, in
conjunction with the Curry School of Education and the Division of
Continuing Education, is conducting a 12-day enrichment program for
teachers of science and mathematics at the elementary, middle and high
school levels, which runs from June 15-26. The teachers will learn how
to incorporate the SECME program into their schools, enrich their
curriculums, integrate computer technology into the classroom and get
updates on the academic requirements that students will need to be
considered for slots in engineering programs at the nation's colleges
and universities. 

	For more information on any of these programs, contact Ronnie
Price, director of minority programs at the School of Engineering, at
(804) 924-0614, or by e-mail at rjp6h@virginia.edu. Or, call Roseann
Parks, director of Charlottesville Regional Programs, at (804)
982-5313, or by e mail at parks@virginia. Or, Susan Mintz, coordinator
for the course and the faculty, at (804) 982 2238, or by e-mail at
slm4r@virginia.edu.  For help in reaching Price, Parks or Mintz, call
Charlotte Crystal at (804) 924-6858.  Television reporters should call
our TV News office at (804) 924 7550.

	Parking is available at the University parking garage on Emmet
Street. Tom Doran, director of public relations for the Virginia
Engineering Foundation, can validate parking tickets for reporters. 

###

June 20, 1997