By Marjorie Hernandez
mhernandez@VenturaCountyStar.com
March 20, 2007

More than 200 students sat in the bleachers mesmerized by the flashing stage lights and a music video on two big screens as three performers moved their bodies to choreographed hip-hop and break-dancing moves.

Instead of busting a catchy hip-hop hook about fancy cars or flashy jewelry, however, the performers' rhymes paid homage to the "Man Behind the Motion" — Sir Isaac Newton — and his Three Laws of Motion.

"One day, an apple fell from a tree on Newton's head ? he was chillin', see. Sittin' there, feeling sore, he had a idea nobody thought of before ... force, mass, acceleration ? everything is in motion!"

Rather than sitting with their science books in a classroom Monday morning, sixth- through eighth-graders from Mesa Union School District attended a "hip-hop science" performance by FMA Live! at the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Oxnard and Port Hueneme. Students from the El Rio School District and Boys & Girls Club members attended shows later in the day.

FMA Live! is a science and hip-hop program complete with singing and rhyming, music videos, scientific demonstrations and everything Sir Isaac Newton. The free, 45-minute program is sponsored by Honeywell and NASA to inspire students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math.

"The program allows them to have a visual way to remember Newton's laws," said Debbie Dunn, a Mesa Junior High School science teacher. "The rap music and demonstrations tie into the whole learning experience and their enjoyment level."

Aside from the hip-hop rhymes and dancing, performers Candi Hall, Chase Benz and Lars-Eric Brown also asked audience members to help with the scientific demonstrations.

Even Mesa Junior High Principal Leigh Schwartz helped demonstrate Newton's laws of inertia, force and action/reaction as he sat on stage in a "hover chair" propelled by a tank of carbon dioxide.

While students cheered and counted down, Schwartz was pushed into a huge cream pie.

"That was funny," said Mesa sixth-grader Mackenzie Kytlica, 11. "I also just really liked all of the dancing . I thought it was really exciting."

Hall said she hopes that reaching more than 116,000 students in schools throughout the United States and Canada will foster more interest in the sciences.

"Honeywell has done research that showed fields like engineering, math and technology are growing, but the young people aren't looking into those fields," Hall said. "With shows like FMA Live!, we want to show that science is fun. We want to create interest, and hopefully the students will start thinking about a future in technology or even space programs."

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