LOS ANGELES — When it comes to machinery that spins, a turntable not a washing machine seems a more fitting association with rap artist Dr. Dre.
But for students from the Los Angeles school district's new high school — the brainchild of Andre "Dr. Dre" Young and fellow music industry mogul Jimmy Iovine — the lowly washing machine became the star of a lesson about water conservation. Made out of cardboard with a tub that actually did spin, the students conceptualized and built a prototype with the potential to recycle gray water for irrigation.
That kind of thinking is at the core of the Iovine and Young Center Integrated Design, Technology, and Entrepreneurship Magnet, a high school based at Audubon Middle School in the Leimert Park neighborhood. The star power of the school's namesakes has helped to draw first-year and sophomore students — and educators hope the school will serve as a bright spot for reversing declining enrollment by engaging young minds in cool and cutting edge ways.
