SYLMAR - Professor Bamdad Samii paced back and forth, scribbling a flurry of algebra equations before a new generation of scientists.
His classroom for calculus was new - part of a new Center for Science and Math that opened this week at Los Angeles Mission College in Sylmar.
"We love it," Samii said, distracted momentarily as the sun cascaded across the desks of 38 students with calculators. Then back to his equations and students.
"We're interested in how fast things change - how algebra feels," he continued. "Let's talk about what you remember about velocity."
It's been a dizzying week at the $87 million science and math center, the latest addition to one of the fastest growing campuses in Los Angeles. | See photo gallery.
As the 2012-13 term began, an estimated 2,000 science, technology, engineering and math students flooded into the 99,000-square-foot labyrinth of classrooms and labs on the east campus overlooking the San Gabriel Mountains.
Meanwhile, up to 80 professors scrambled under a deluge of high-tech deliveries, from new centrifuges to advanced Zeiss microscopes.
"I'm tickled pink," said Stephen Brown, a fifth-year Mission College microbiology professor who'd come in on his day off to sort his goodies. "We couldn't do organic chemistry before. Now we can.
"We're now on a par with any science facility across the district."
The old science and math facilities at L.A. Mission, which opened in 1975, were showing signs of extreme wear, administrators said. Its few classrooms also weren't keeping up with a surge of students, from 6,000 enrolled in 2005 to 10,000 this semester.
The three-story science center, paid for by voter-approved bonds, now soars 70 feet above the edge of the Pacoima Wash.
Built in two wings linked with a giant atrium to LEED Platinum standards, the center is among the most environmentally advanced buildings in the nation.
It also houses 18 classrooms and a dozen advanced laboratories in physics, general and organic chemistry, anatomy and astronomy. Where the campus once made do with one biology lab, it now sports five.
"It's a game-changer," said college President Monte E. P rez. "Now we can offer all the classes necessary for transferring into science, engineering, technology and biomedical careers."
Across campus rise numerous new buildings paid for by a $6 billion bond building program within the Los Angeles Community College District. They include a new Health, Fitness and Athletic Complex, new
The entrance to the new Center for Math and Science at Los Angeles Mission College in Sylmar, on Aug. 31, 2012. The $85 million three-story building features 18 classrooms, 12 laboratories, offices, an auditorium and conference rooms. (Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer)
Culinary Arts Institute and a $33 million Media Arts Center now under construction.A $1.5 million Central Energy Plant, to generate 80 percent of campus power, is also in the works.
The community college also just won a $4.3 million federal grant to encourage its mostly minority students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
Par Mohammadian, a biology professor and director of the STEM Program, said the new Center for Math and Science is key for the latest science-math whizzes.
"We love it," she said, moving between labs containing staphylococcus epidermis bacteria to rats and cats awaiting dissection. "The students love it. The rats and cats ... everybody.
"All pre-nurses, pre-med, pre-pharmacy and pre-dentists ... we now have the room for enrolling more students."
Students, seated beneath center solar panels powerful enough to juice 40 homes, were thrilled.
"Awesome," said Jesus I iguez, 22, of Sylmar, who hopes to study medicine and work with recovering drug addicts. "I'm a science major.
"Coming to this new building, facilities and labs - it's just beyond amazing. It really helps me do my work."
dana.bartholomew@dailynews.com
818-713-3730
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