Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
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Tehachapi High School hosted Tehachapi's FIRST Robotics Team 585 grand robot unveiling and chili cookoff fundraiser on Saturday, Feb. 23 to an enthusiastic crowd in the school cafeteria. The event featured a silent auction of items donated as fundraisers, a special guest speaker and much more. This year's theme is titled "Destination: Deep Space," and involves a specific challenge the students will meet in a nation-wide series of competitions. Keynote speaker Abby Dobbins is the F135 jet engine...
The Tehachapi build a plane project, in which local high school students have been building a working airplane with the oversight of adult mentors from the aerospace industry, have been getting a big dose of attention in the past few months. California State Assemblyman Vince Fong paid the hangar a visit on June 15, and the students were able to greet him and give him some hands-on experience with some of the tools they've become experts at using. Back in February, television channels 29 and 23...
Bear Valley Springs held their 4th of July events on June 30, July 1 and July 4. Hot air balloons took flight in the early mornings, filling the skies with vibrant colors....
Excitement was on overload as Tehachapi 4th and 5th graders were treated to a rewarding rocket launch day May 30 at the Tehachapi Municipal Airport. Their model rockets were launched amid loud cheers. Sponsored by Arts Science & Technology (AST), the Intermediate Space Challenge (ISC) is a program that provides model rocket kits for the students to build in their classrooms. This helps teach kids about the science involved in rocketry. Kids get the experience of building a small rocket to be...
One of the great benefits of being a school kid in Tehachapi is the presence of so many dedicated volunteers from aerospace, aviation, engineering and related fields. These volunteers regularly present programs where students can gain hands-on experience and learn about subjects where career opportunities abound. Enter AST, the Arts, Science and Technology Educational Corporation of Tehachapi, and the program they have brought to the schools, the Intermediate Space Challenge. This is a program...
The Build-a-Plane project for high school students in Tehachapi is looking less like an assortment of sheet metal parts and more like an airplane that will fly. The Tehachapi Society of Pilots (TSP) and Valley Oaks Charter School-sponsored project has been making consistent progress since January. The participating students are increasing in their skill and knowledge, and the fact that the airplane is taking shape is proving it. Students meet for classroom instruction one day a week, and in the...
Over the weekend of March 22 through 25, the Tehachapi High School robotics team took home the most prestigious award, the Chairman's Award, from the regional robotics competition in Las Vegas. This sends them to the world championship in Houston in April, where they will compete against teams from all over the world. The Chairman's Award is, in a sense, beyond robotics. It is awarded based on how the robotics team is contributing to the community at large, and here is why they won: the THS...
On Saturday, February 24, FIRST Robotics Team 585, based at Tehachapi High School, held the public unveiling of the robot they've built to meet the 2018 FIRST Robotics challenge. The festivities included a chili cookoff, silent auction, and a fun and inspiring presentation by Roger Hayes, founder and president of Sierra Technical Services, based in Tehachapi. Students on the team have been working furiously to meet this deadline, sometimes late into the night, since the challenge was unveiled...
On Feb. 26, I took another trip to Tehachapi Municipal Airport to check in on the progress of the airplane building project. Things are progressing rapidly. The beginnings of a fuselage, wing and tail sections are taking recognizable shape, and the students were working with great concentration on moving toward their goal. Project manager Paul Nafziger, motioning to some of the adult mentors on site, said that these are men who have many years in the aviation industry and who know the strict...
There's a house in Bear Valley that twice a week hosts a gathering of school kids working on their projects. These projects stand a good chance of getting them into an international competition. Many of these kids actually got there last year, and have the souvenirs to show for it. Destination Imagination (DI), a global non-profit sponsored by some large well-known corporations such as 3M, Ford and IBM , exists to provide students opportunities to increase their learning through participation...
A fortunate and lively group of high school students from the Tehachapi area is taking advantage of a special class in building a small airplane. This is a hands-on project in which the students attend a once-a-week classroom instruction session, and twice-a-week shop sessions where they will build an actual airplane. About half the students are from Tehachapi High School and half from Valley Oaks Charter School. Sessions have been underway since early January, and their first shop project...
The Tehachapi High School FIRST Robotics Team assembled at THS on Saturday, Jan. 6 for a "Reveal" in which the rules and specifications for a new season's challenge were live-streamed to all of the thousands of participating schools simultaneously. This event kicked off an intensive six-week period where the team has to fully understand the new game rules, design a robot that can meet the challenge, build and test prototypes, test and debug the systems, and complete their final robot in time to...
These high school students are busy! Tehachapi High School's robotics team is one of only 30 schools out of over 3,000 nationwide that is certified as a beta test center for new software rollouts in the FirstTeam robotics program. In preparation for next year's challenge, the Tehachapi High School robotics team is working out the necessary programming changes after an upgrade to the software that controls the robots. Once they work out all the bugs and beta test results are in, they will be...
Tehachapi Martial Arts Center and Indian Hills CrossFit hosted a fundraiser on Nov. 11 to support the Wounded Heroes Fund of Kern County. It was held on the mat at Tehachapi Martial Arts Center and divided into two events. TMAC participants did a Kick-a-Thon, and IHCF did a Burpee-a-Thon. The Kick-a-Thon of mostly young students of TMAC lasted for 30-nonstop-minutes of whatever type of karate kick each child chose. Kids were divided into small groups, while one person counting for each group...
The Tehachapi High School's Robotics challenge for all Tehachapi students from 1st through 12th grade has made significant progress since the first article that appeared in The Loop in September. This year's participation is continuing the trend of more students being involved. 170 students are in the program this year, up from last year's number of 140. The projects from the 1st – 3rd graders, at the time of writing, were nearing completion for their exhibition on Nov. 11 at THS. Those students...
Imagine 3,000 years ago, during the warmer months, a gathering of Kawaiisu families (or Nüwa people, as they call themselves) on a rocky mountaintop shaded by large oaks overlooking a beautiful valley. The women are using grinding stones to make meal from the plentiful acorns there, and the men are out hunting while children play hide and seek among the sage and rocks under the oaks. At night they sleep in huts made from willow, tule and bark, and use hot rocks from the campfire to keep warm....
Tehachapi High School is hosting its third annual Tehachapi First Team robotics challenges for all students from first grade through 12th grade. The age-appropriate challenges are divided up into four age groups so students can participate at a level that's right for them, and that they can excel in. For the 1st through 3rd graders, teams of kids, aided by THS student volunteer mentors, will build a LEGO model and a LEGO WeDo robot, and get to share their work with industry professionals....
Tehachapi Recreation & Park District just hosted the 2017 Old Timers Reunion in Philip Marx Central Park on Aug. 6, and by all measures, it was a success. The event was well attended, and a good time was had by all. Here are a few snapshots of some of the Old Timers in attendance. Larry Rolin was born in 1965 in Tehachapi hospital, and ever since then, even though he's moved away several times, he's always come back to live here. He spent 19 years working construction jobs that had him moving...
Eric Scarlett is one of Tehachapi's claims to fame. If you've ever wondered who built the world's largest barbecue grill, or the world's biggest motorcycle, look no further than Bear Valley Springs, where Eric is a resident. Driving up to Eric's house off Jacaranda, there's a commanding view of the southern Sierra Nevada mountain range. He lives in a very nice 2-story house with a garage that looks like an automotive shop, which gives away a huge clue to one of his major hobbies. He invited me...
On Thursday June 1, the kindergarteners from Golden Hills Elementary delighted their parents, families and friends with a "Dancing with the Stars" event at Jacobsen Middle School's gymnasium. Six different kindergarten classes with their respective teachers dressed up in themed outfits and put on a dance performance for about 150-200 audience members, consisting of family and friends. The kids performed several dance numbers, and everybody had a great time enjoying the performances....
Destination Imagination www.destinationimagination.org is an international organization that provides kids with opportunities to enhance their education by forming teams that participate in structured challenges, competing to advance to regional, state, national and international events. The team from Cummings Valley Elementary School advanced to the regional competition in Redlands, then on to the state finals in Sacramento, where they became the only Kern County team to advance to the Global...
