Make It Exciting, and They’ll Come on Saturday
Getting middle school students to spend a precious Saturday morning back in school—studying STEM topics, no less—may sound like an exercise in frustration. But, a program developed by the Salisbury, Maryland school district is having great success doing exactly that, says the Salisbury Daily Times.
Photo Credit Amanda Rippen White, The Daily Times of Salisbury, Md
Each of the monthly Saturday morning sessions is tied to real-world applications that kids find fun and exciting—which is why they’re showing up. At the January session, for example, Sophie Wang, a Salisbury University professor of math and computer science, taught the assembled middle-schoolers computer programming by showing them how to create their own animated videos using “Alice,” a free software program created at Carnegie Mellon University that’s loaded with 3-D images. She also stressed team work, and the kids worked together to create a scene showing two soldiers watching a plane land on an aircraft carrier, the paper reported.
Next month’s session will feature architecture, and March’s will focus on animals. Beyond making STEM subjects fun, the Saturday sessions also emphasize that kids learn by doing—and, of course, that’s fun, too.
Filed under: K-12 Education News
Tags: After School, Computer Programming, Grades 6-8, Programs for Students, Science
