Once again, Read Across America was a blast!

I've come to love "Read Across America." There's something magical about everyone wearing silly hats in celebration of an author. There's something awesome about people all over the country coming together solely for the purpose of reading.

It's really special to see children excited about books, about community members coming to their schools to read to them. As many students with Stephanie Bemboom combo 1st and 2nd grade class put it: I love it when I'm read to out loud.

As many of you know, Read Across America was launched 18 years ago by the National Education Association. It's celebrated the first week of March, which coincides with the birthday of Theodor Seuss Geisel, the famous Dr. Seuss.

It's an opportunity for people to read his beloved books, and that's what retired Ord Terrace teacher Carla Wright did when reading at her former school.



 Len Foster, president of the board of the Literacy Campaign for Monterey County, took part of the celebration.

Japanese speech contest coming to North Salinas High

The community is invited to the 9th annual Monterey County High School Japanese Speech Contest, which this year will be accompanied by a special cultural presentation by 24 visiting high school students from Tokyo, Japan.

Twelve local high school students who are studying Japanese will vie for the top speech prize. Light refreshments will be served, followed by a presentation in English by the visiting Japanese high school students.

Both events take place at North Salinas High School’s Multi Purpose Room and admission is free. From 4 to 7 p.m. March 25 at the multi-purpose room of North Salinas High School, 55 Kip Dr, Salinas. For more information, call Yo Azama at 831-796-7500.

Emma Morgan of Stevenson wins national MIT competition

Three U.S. high school students were recognized as winners of the 2015 MIT THINK Scholars Program, one of the only student-run high school research competitions in the country.

Among them was Emma Morgan, an 11th grader from Stevenson School.

Emma was one of six finalist who got an all-expenses-paid trip to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and give a presentation of their projects. Emma emerged as one of the top three winners, earning a $1,000 scholarship, a $2,000 grant to carry out her project.

In her project, "Artificial Musculature: A New Approach to the Linear Solenoid" Morgan proposes to redesign linear solenoids to improve motion in prosthetics. From her proposal:

"Advancement in biologically based robotics is the key to better prosthetics and more lifelike robots. This requires linear motion like that of natural musculature. Currently, the major types of electromechanical linear actuators are solenoids and pneumatics, which are not well adapted for use as musculature. This paper proposes a redesign of the linear solenoid to form linear actuator cells. Consisting of a permanent magnet and an electromagnet, these modular cells will expand and contract based on the direction of the current through the electromagnet. Each cell can connect to another identical cell and form a chain or “muscle”. I will test several sizes of cells, types of electromagnets, and materials for the outer membrane to determine which has the most contraction capacity and efficiency. Later research will focus on miniaturization of the most efficient model.

Yeah, she's an eleventh grader.

The THINK program, which stands for Technology for Humanity guided by Innovation, Networking,and Knowledge, accepts applications from high school students around the country every year. THINK aims to make science and technology research accessible to all motivated high school students by providing the resources needed to complete a project. Since the program started in 2008, it has helped tens of students in the past several years complete innovative and creative projects in the STEM field.

I'd so love to see more Monterey County students take part -- and win awards -- from this program. Emma's a really good start. Congratulations again!