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Santa Maria Rocket Program Launches Students into New School Year 5%
By Jack Dindia0%
8/2/2026, 8:26:28 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 2 faulty reasoning types, including Hasty Generalization, with Optimism Bias as the most egregious example at 24.8% saturation with 120 hits. Analysis detected 140 faulty-reasoning hits from 484 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 14.5% and a BS Rank of 5% (24,487 of 25,563 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 95.80% of the article peer group.
Incoming Santa Maria Joint Union High School District students braced themselves for the end of their summer break and the school year on Friday with the district’s annual model rocket launch.
Pioneer Valley High School has welcomed students and teachers from three of the district’s campuses — Pioneer High, Righetti High and Santa Maria High — every summer since 2019 for the “Rocketing Into High School” program.
The 15 students, mostly freshmen, volunteered prior to the beginning of the school year for the two-day program.
Each student created and launched their own individual model rockets.
Riccardo Magni, chair of the PVHS science department, said the program helps students prepare themselves for the school year by connecting them with their peers.
“Because the schools (are) so big, it’s a blessing for the kids to have a familiar face, a teacher, another kid that they know, a classroom that they have visited, so they know other people,” Magni said.
Each student enthusiastically counted down as they prepared to launch their rocket at Pioneer High on Friday.
Credit: Jack Dindia / Noozhawk photo
Samantha Canango, a Santa Maria High incoming ninth-grader, said she felt the program helped her make friends and get a feel for the high school “classroom experience.”
She said she had some difficulty building the rocket, but said it helped her understand that trying hard enough at something “will eventually work.”
“The first try, the top fell off, so it didn’t go anywhere.
Second time, it went a little farther, but it didn’t really go that far,” Canango said.
“My third try, it was the best one, and it went the farthest.”
Incoming Righetti High ninth-grader Jordan Pembrok said the program helped him “make more creative things.”
Incoming sophomore at Santa Maria High Erick Arias agreed.
He said the program “kickstarted his creative thinking” and will help him be more involved in extracurriculars.
Each student created their own individual rockets, which they launched with the help of Santa Maria Joint Union School District teachers.
Credit: Jack Dindia / Noozhawk photo
Magni said students are able to learn important life skills through the program, comparing building the rockets to universal lessons.
“Everyone’s gonna have either a house or a car, or they’re gonna need to fix something in their life, right?”
Magni said.
“So, learning how to use some tools and how to build some stuff and learning how to read the instructions, it’s a skill worth more than it sounds like.”
He called it a “great program” and said this year’s kids were “very talented.”
He was “very, very happy to see their involvement,” he added.
The first day of the new school year for Santa Maria Joint Union School District high school students is Aug.
13.
The post Santa Maria Rocket Program Launches Students into New School Year appeared first on Noozhawk .
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