Math is all around
DEVIN WEEKS/Press Fernan first-grader Asher Smith is delighted by the tessellation mosaic light board Tuesday as he and his classmates explore the Science on Wheels exhibits in the gym.
Kindergartners Cade Baldwin and Zabrina Hull inspect a tumbler filled with beads at a Science on Wheels station in the Fernan STEM Academy gym on Tuesday. (DEVIN WEEKS/Press)
COEUR d’ALENE — Mirrors, clothing dryers, stars and computers.
What do they all have in common?
Mathematics, of course.
“It’s everywhere,” said Kia Valkonen, outreach educator with the Science on Wheels program. “I think that’s a lot of fun.”
Science on Wheels team members visited Fernan STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Academy on Tuesday. They’ll be wrapping up activities today as the students are exploring different concepts that show how math is found in everyday things.
"It’s so positive,” Valkonen said. "These kids are exposed to a lot of math and science already, but we’re trying to bring some different aspects of math ... wherever it relates to art, where math intersects with the sciences and not just doing rote memorization.”
Science on Wheels is a program of the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, an educational nonprofit that strives to ignite curiosity in children. The Science on Wheels team brought several exciting lessons to Fernan, where interactive exhibits have been set up in classrooms and in the gym. Probability, geometry and spatial reasoning are among the ideas made tangible at stations where students have worked with mosaic pieces, rubber ice cream cones, a buzzer and other fun yet educational tools.
"It's awesome," said first-grader Asher Smith as he contemplated where to place polygons to cover a light board with a tessellation mosaic.
"I’ve been to Seattle but I don’t know if I’ve been to the science center," said fellow first-grader Owen Copstead, also examining the pieces on the board. "It’s really cool and fun."
The Science on Wheels visit was funded by the more than $20,000 brought in during the STEMghetti Dinner and Auction in February. The event supports Fernan's 400-plus students, more than half of whom receive free or reduced lunch.
"It’s a priceless opportunity for a lot of our students who otherwise wouldn't have the opportunity to drive over to Seattle," said Principal Kathy Livingston. "Even if they are in Seattle, they may not ever go to the Pacific Science Center."
The traveling exhibit program visiting Fernan has "been amazing," she said.
"STEM isn’t just science, and I think sometimes people think if you're not doing science all day, you’re not a true STEM school, and STEM has four letters," Livingston said. "We’ve been focused on the ‘M’ this year.”