erin stewartson wanted to learn more about them, so she and leventon created one in the lab. >> so ae tornado is basically a normal fire plume. basically just something lit on fire and then when an enclosure goes over it a rectangular enclosure, it creates an angular momentum which makes the fire spin into a tornado or a whirl. and they do exactly what tornadoes do, they pick trees up and take trees out of places, they've taken firemen out of places which is pretty crazy. just seeing how it forms and watching it happen in the lab that was pretty amazing. >> reporter: the class is structured just like a university level science course, with similar expectations and coursework like labs and tests. here, though, the final project is presented to classmates and parents. >> so it's not just study something, measure something and present it but really learn about what's happening in the field and what are people doing and why does that matter. >> reporter: the introduction to what college classes will be like, and discussion of potential careers are two reasons pablo's mother, norma ruiz,