Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current, August 04, 1999, Page 19, Image 19

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    August 4, 1999
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Page 5
Watching
By Kara Post, Portland Christian &
Chelsea Brooks, Benson High School
Contributing Writers
modes of transportation. While it
was hard work, it was also fun. Our
fellow SAAM students were enjoy­
ing themselves and concentrating on
the task at hand. When the tests were
through, we all got back together
and compared our findings. Our re­
search showed that, indeed, walking
provided the quickest mode of trans­
portation in downtown Portland.
Kara Post will be a Junior at
Portland Christian in the fall. She
has been involved with Saturday
A cadem y for 2 years. C helsea
Brooks served as an as­
sistant teacher at Sat­
urday Academ y this
year and will be attend­
ing Benson in the fall
as a Senior. Saturday
Academy is a pre-col­
lege education program
of the Oregon Gradu­
ate Institute of Science
and Technology (OGI).
For more info., call
R en ée A nd erson at
503/282-2694.
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Imagine times when you were late
. 4
for work and at the moment when
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you were going to make that yellow
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light, it turned red! It seems as if the
light is aggravating you and only
you. Most people seem to have expe­
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rienced that.
3
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1
What makes those traffic lights
turn so systematically? How was it
determined how long a yellow light
should stay yellow
and how is it that we
can sometimes catch
Karimah Guion (left), Kara Post (middle) and Casey Downer (right) are collecting
green lights all the
traffic data for the research problem assigned to them. They are shown with the
way
up
M artin
traffic engineer (far right) from Kittelson & Associates.
Luther King Blvd.?
All of our questions
were answered when
the Saturday Academy
Applied Mathematics
(SAAM) took an edu­
cational field trip to
Kittelson and Associ­
ates, a traffic engineer­
ing firm. We learned
about the computers in
the traffic lights and
how much research it
takes to figure out how
Flatlands
the traffic lights should
Thursday, July 15
be programmed. We
Theresa Demerest & Good Company
found that the traffic
Thursday, July 22
engineers used a lot of
the mathematics that
Songwriters in the Round with Craig Carothers
we learned in our
Sunday, July 25 at 7:30pm • $7.00 admission
Marcus Broussard presents his group's data to the rest of the Saturday
SAAM Institute. We Academy Applied Mathematics group at the engineering firm of
The Jack McMahon Band
also researched a prob­ Kittelson & Associates.
Thursday, July 29
lem of our own.
Our mission was
The Jessie Samsel Band
to find the quickest
Thursday, August 5 at 7pm
mode of transporta­
Retta & the Smart Fellas
tion and the mode of
Thursday, August 12
transportation that
UNCF Fundraiser with Tom Grant
served the m ost
Tuesday, August 17
people in the down­
town vicinity. The
I& I
choices tested light
Thursday, August 19
rail, walking or cars.
We took a vote be­
fore beginning our
work, and most of us
• Full or Part Tim e
Male or Female
believed that the pe­
destrians would pro­
efits Available
• Salary and
vide the best trans­
portation system. So
we all put our guess
to the test.
We split up into
three groups. Each
group was to go out
2535 NF Alberta Street
around downtown
Portland, Oregon 97211
Portland and test
each of the three
5756 NE 55rd • Portland, Oregon • (505) 249-5985
If'
1 W
S ummer E vents
PROFESSI
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SHOE SHINE MAN
B o b b y ’s B a r b e r S h ^ p oV\;
(503) 331-0712'^/(5^^
M cM enam ins K ennedy School