With much focus nowadays on space tourism ventures launched by visionaries such as Jeff Bezos, Sir Richard Branson and Elon Musk, local kids got the chance to explore the galaxy without even leaving Mount Airy.
This was courtesy of a summer enrichment program offered by Mount Airy City Schools which has a different theme each week, including a “Reach for the Stars” session that concluded last Thursday allowing youths to learn about space.
The theme for this week is “Under the Sea.”
Mount Airy City Schools bills the different segments of the summer enrichment program as “family engagement sessions” that are geared toward school-age children and parents.
And the beauty of the concept is that they don’t have to travel to some facility on the other side of town to participate.
“We’re bringing it to them,” said Candice Haynes, one of two lead teachers for the summer program along with Ashley Pyles. This occurs using the familiar Blue Bear Bus, which is driven to different locations around town each week, filled with books and other materials to match the different themes.
On Mondays, the bus travels to the Madoc Center, and on Tuesday program organizers set up shop on Granite Road. Fellowship Baptist Church is penciled in on the schedule each Wednesday and the week concludes with a Thursday stopover at Riverside Park.
(Today’s session has been shifted from Granite Road to Riverside Park due to the threat of rain, but will resume at the normal sites on Wednesday.)
The segments run from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the different locations. The summer enrichment program began in early June and will end on July 28.
Along with “Reach for the Stars” and “Under the Sea,” the weekly themes have included “Ready Set Grow,” “STEAM into Summer” and “Red, White and Blue,” an appropriate lead-in for the July 4 weekend before the program took a brief break.
The final theme for next week’s session is “Fun Fitness.”
“We give away free books every day,” Haynes said, with breakfast and lunch also provided at no charge to participants.
Additionally, a field trip component is built into the program, including to a facility in Winston-Salem.
More than education
Along with providing fun activities for children and families, the summer enrichment effort reflects an ulterior motive of sorts: avoiding what educators refer to as “summer slide.”
That is the tendency among some students to lose academic gains they achieved during the previous school session — forcing them to play catch-up when the next term begins.
The different themes of the enrichment program each week are designed to keep the kids’ minds engaged and focused on learning.
“These are activities they’re not going to go out and do in the summertime (otherwise),” Haynes said.
Last week during the “Reach for the Stars” session, for example, participants developed Mars Rover models; worked with Legos figures; learned about the different phases of the moon and its orbit around Earth using cookies; and enjoyed hands-on time with “slime,” reminiscent of experiments undertaken with that substance in 2020 aboard the International Space Station.
The Nickelodeon television network provided the slime that has become an iconic feature of the network which is dumped on people’s heads during game shows in acts of either celebration or humiliation — which most consider a privilege overall.
Simulated slime also covered the endzone after every touchdown during a special Nickelodeon telecast of the San Francisco 49ers-Dallas Cowboys playoff game in January.
A humble mixture of vanilla pudding, applesauce, green food coloring and a little oatmeal, the slime was used by International Space Station crew members to test how the unique fluid reacted in microgravity.
Nickelodeon also created a teacher’s guide on the experiments conducted to stimulate young students.
Slime was in plentiful supply at the Madoc Center along with LEGO pieces students worked with, coinciding with another endeavor in which 26 LEGO figures were transported to the International Space Station as part of a special mission.
This week’s “Under the Sea” theme is being accompanied by activities showing the dangers of plastic to marine life, an oil slick experiment and more.
Yet aside from the educational components involved with the Blue Bear Bus summer enrichment program is the opportunity for socializing which it provides.
“Definitely, the interactions, especially with my daughter,” parent Vasso Iliopoulos said of the benefits for her two children, the daughter who is 4 and a 10-year-old son. They have been able to meet many other people during the Madoc Center gatherings that they regularly attend.
Iliopoulos also praised the program for its offering of unique activities that typically would not be available to her children during the summer — “things they don’t get exposed to at home.”
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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