Every math teacher's favorite movie is Stand and Deliver, the story of East L.A.'s Garfield High School teacher Jaime Escalante and his inspiring effort to get barrio students to take and pass the Advanced Placement test in calculus 30+ years ago. When the US Postal Service honored Escalante on a stamp, I bought a plate of them--and I don't even collect stamps.
A week or so ago, a friend and long-time RotLC reader told me about the 2015 movie Spare Parts. Also based on a true story, it's about some poor Hispanic students in Phoenix who enter an underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV) competition. While some schools (both high schools and colleges) entered ROVs costing tens of thousands of dollars, these students solicited local donations and built their ROV for about $800. How did they do against powerhouses like Cornell and MIT? Did the underdogs pull out a victory in the end, or did their personal demons overwhelm them?
Go find out. It's a fun movie.
4 comments:
I read the original story about those kids. It was an astounding feat -- brains know no color or income.
But there is another story-- what happened to these kids afterwards? How did their lives change? Life goes on past the rock 'n roll end credits of a movie, after all. The whole story is worth looking into, although it's disappointing in some ways.
I wonder if these young men received any of the box office take of their story?
There's a brief blurb about each student at the end of the movie.
Have you seen "The Imitation Game?"
Yes.
But in time's arrow, The Imitation Game is going the *opposite* direction!
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