This summer, some city teachers got to go to camp and they're excited to bring what they learned at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center back to their students.
'It was an amazing experience. It made many of us feel like, 'Gee, maybe we missed our calling to be an astronaut.' I think that's the way everybody feels when they come away from it, that you really see the possibilities of where science math and engineering instruction can take you,' teacher Kelley Smith said.
Smith is an elementary and middle school teacher in Mt. Airy and Roxan Banzon, a physics teacher at Polytechnic Institute, were two of the 200 lucky teachers that won scholarships from Honeywell to attend the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Alabama for a week. They got to learn how NASA uses the STEM basics of science technology engineering and math for space travel.
'They are integrating STEM, you know, with classrooms, especially with Common Core now that kids don't just have to know the answer, but can explain what the answer is,' Banzon said.
Banzon believes one of the best ways to teach that is through hands-on experience and they got plenty of that at camp. In teams, they got to run an imaginary space mission using all the real command computer equipment and even spacewalks for repairs when necessary. They've both brought back new inspiration for hands on lessons.
'Learning is by doing. I believe in that. You just don't tell them, you just don't lecture them because then they will not have full attention to you, so they can explain more if they, themselves, were doing it,' Banzon said.
They also want students to see the real-world application for the skills they're learning to spark their interest to pursue more math and science classes.
'Students are always asking us, 'Why do we have to learn this?' And bringing back those techniques and strategies that give students authentic reasons and real-world situations for their learning, is something I definitely want to include in my classroom lessons this year more even so than I have before,' Smith said.
Smith and Banzon said they are inspired by the whole experience and they are ready to share that with students when they head back to the classroom next week.
Entities 0 Name: Banzon Count: 4 1 Name: Smith Count: 3 2 Name: U.S. Count: 2 3 Name: Polytechnic Institute Count: 1 4 Name: Kelley Smith Count: 1 5 Name: Rocket Center Count: 1 6 Name: NASA Count: 1 7 Name: Honeywell Count: 1 8 Name: Roxan Banzon Count: 1 9 Name: Alabama Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1nU1B2v Title: Why Do Americans Stink at Math? Description: When Akihiko Takahashi was a junior in college in 1978, he was like most of the other students at his university in suburban Tokyo. He had a vague sense of wanting to accomplish something but no clue what that something should be.
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