Family Science and Math! Flour Bluff Intermediate - Feb 2009

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"As a young student, science was something that occurred in forests, oceans and space...not in my house. Science happened to plants, molecules and organs...not to me. Today we showed students not only how things work, but also the relevance of science."

On February 19th, approximately 100 preservice math and science teachers gathered at Flour Bluff intermediate school to share the projects they conceived, designed and implemented with intermediate students and their families. It was a great evening and our first family learning event of the spring semester. Thank you to Marcia Venzon's preservice math students who worked along side our science projects. A wonderful evening! Here are some reflections from my students:

* "Teaching science to children does not seem so daunting."

*"When teaching any subject, whether it be about nutrition or numbers, strive to deliver instruction that is versatile....I can encourage this by getting to know the families and integrating that knowledge into the curriculum."

*"The son had a much harder time listening to his heart through the stethoscope and he exclaimed softly with astonishment, "There's so much fat above my heart...I just can't hear through it." I think this was the first time he had ever realized just how hard it was on his body to weigh so much."

*"I did not think that a bunch of middle school kids would be as excited about science as they were. It was fun to see their faces when they connected something that they learned."

*"Not everything will flow smoothly when you are teaching science, but when glitches come along that that, you must be able to think creatively and improvise with what you can."

*"If I had the opportunity to advise someone who was going to be participating in this wonderful event, it would be to fully engage in it and give it all you've got because it is fascinating to learn new things and most importantly to be able to share it with the public."

*"I use to hate science- it always seemed so boring, worksheet after worksheet, and no hands-on activities. By participating in science night it made me see just much fun, interactive, hands-on experiments there are for science."

*"I feel that I gained social skills with parents and students and that will be beneficial to me as I become a teacher."

*"Getting parents involved in their children's education is important because it shows the child how valuable education can be. If we can instill this mentality into their minds, our children of the future could possibly someday become successful scientists or mathematicians."

*"More than anything, I learned that children really respond to science lessons."