From driving a lunar robot to watching bubbles burst into flame, fourth-graders got a chance to see that science and math on the college level is a lot of fun.
John Brown University students and professors gave tours of the university's science and engineering departments to 300 fourth-graders from Southside Elementary School on April 22 and 24 with the hope of sparking their interest in science and college.
Discovery Days was a collaboration between the university's Education Department, Science Department and Engineering Department, according to Grace Davis, professional development coordinator between JBU and the Siloam Springs School District.
The purpose was to show science in action and help the students visualize the life of a scientist, she said.
"We're hoping to ignite future scientists," Davis said.
Rebecca Evans, a teacher at Southside Elementary School, came up with the concept for Discovery Days, according to Davis.
"It's so wonderful that the idea came from a public school teacher," she said.
Evans said she got the idea from a similar event held at Oklahoma State University and approached Davis about it. This is the first year for the event. Evans said she hopes to do it next year.
"It really reinforced what we're teaching in the classroom.
Last week was the first time many of the elementary school students had visited a college campus.
"Some kids talk about college but some kid's don't even have college on their radar," she said.
Evans hopes her students learned that college can be fun and also the math and science they learn now is very important for college courses.
While touring the Balzar Technology Center, fourth-graders learned about careers in engineering, watched a 3D printer at work and got a chance to drive the university's lunar robot.
Older satellites, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, are as big as a school bus, JBU student Brian Plank told a room full of wide-eyed fourth-graders.
"Now satellites can be as small as this cube," Plank said, holding up a small box made from k-nex.
"This cellphone is more powerful than computers were five years ago," he said. "There are just a few ways engineers are working to improve life on earth."
There is a huge frontier of things that haven't been learned yet, Plank said: "I may never learn that, but you could go and learn that."
The difference between scientists and engineers is that scientists go out and learn new things and engineers take that knowledge and do new things with it, he said.
Inside the Bell Science Hall, students looked at lifeforms using the university's microscopes, toured the school's greenhouse with biology professor Joel Funk, and watched university students conduct chemistry experiments inside the school's lab.
JBU student Hannah Wright told the fourth-graders that she thought science was boring when she was their age --until she had a chemistry teacher that sparked her interest.
"Someone once said that magic is just chemistry we don't understand yet," Wright said. "The more I learn about chemistry the more magical it is to me."
Fourth-graders also had a chance to do their own hands-on science experiments, led by education majors.
The event also benefits the 20 JBU education majors who set up science experiments -- giving them experience working with children, according to professor Margo Turner.
JBU has a unique partnership with the Siloam Springs School District that allows student teachers to learn alongside classroom teachers.
JBU students spend more than 100 hours in the classroom learning to be a teacher before they even start their internship. While teaching in the classroom, Turner and other professors will step in and coach the university students.
Experiences like Discovery Days help develop teachers that are ready for day one in the classroom, Turner said.
General News on 04/30/2014