Everything was in motion for Tuscarawas Valley Middle School students discovering Newton’s Laws during FMA Live! show, courtesy of NASA and Honeywell

  • by Jennifer Kneuss
  • March 26, 2012
  • 338
                        
Summary: When students get excited about exploring science, technology, engineering and mathematics, whole new worlds open up to them. Area middle school students enjoyed a live action hip-hop show exploring Newton’s Laws of Motion courtesy of NASA and Honeywell. Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are areas in which U.S. students have fallen behind in recent years. The Organization for Education and Cultural Development’s international rankings placed the United States at 17th in math and 25th in science, a dismal record for a country with so many educational opportunities. However, the 21st century demands that workers possess critical math and science skills. The National Commission on Mathematics and Science for the Twenty-first Century estimates that only 20 percent of our current workforce has the skills that will be needed for 60 percent of the new jobs being created. Getting our students excited about the STEM areas is an important first step toward preparing them to succeed. A joint venture between NASA and Honeywell has stirred up a huge amount of enthusiasm and excitement about STEM studies through presentation of a traveling, entertaining show. Students at Tuscarawas Valley Middle School were treated to the award-winning science education concert on March 26 in the school gym, as FMA Live! used music, videos, live hip-hop performers and interactive science demonstrations in a unique presentation to teach students all about Newton’s Laws of Motion and the Universal Law of Gravity in a way they will not soon forget. “This show is totally designed for you,” said Don Lenk, a representative of Honeywell, which is a diversified technology and manufacturing leader. “With music and larger than life demonstrations, we hope to encourage you to pursue the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It is your generation who will make the biggest strides in the future for science.” Dancer/actors hip-hopped their way through choreographed routines accompanied by giant streaming videos presenting the science and history behind Sir Isaac Newton’s discoveries in a humorous delivery style that kept the audience laughing while learning. Seventh and eighth graders cheered wildly when they saw Newton’s Law of Inertia demonstrated as their peers Aric Bird and Cody Allen ran and vaulted into a Velcro wall, and, thanks to the Velcro suits they were wearing, stuck there and hung in midair. Classmate Trisha Kosmides was challenged with the impossible feat of kicking a soccer ball of gargantuan size into a net, demonstrating Newton’s Second Law, F = MA (Force = Mass x Acceleration). As the music blared, student teacher Mr. Ross and seventh grade intervention teacher Jeremy Rodgers found themselves strapped into inflatable, extreme wrestling sumo suits as they bounced off of each other to show that ‘every action has an opposite and equal reaction’. Riley Jarvis and Hunter Martin climbed aboard dragster cars and raced to declare supremacy before the FMA Live! Team brought middle school Principal Scott Young onto the stage, strapped into a specially designed ‘hover chair’ that floated several inches above ground. As students yelled their approval, Young demonstrated all three of Newton’s Laws simultaneously, zipping across the stage in the chair directly into a four foot wide cream filled pie. “I think it’s a wonderful experience for our kids to experience science this way,” stated Young after the performance, as he used a towel in a vain attempt to remove the remains of the pie from around his neck. “They loved it, and they will remember what they learned here. But no one told me the pie would be that big!” he chuckled. The inspiring FMA Live! show is being presented to over 16,000 students during a 10-week run in 20 U.S. and Canadian cities. Honeywell fully funds the program, which was created in 2004 in partnership with NASA as part of Honeywell’s citizenship outreach efforts. The program is free for schools that apply and are accepted at www.fmalive.com. “Technology is changing so fast,” noted Lenk. “It wasn’t that long ago that we had filmstrips and overhead projectors. Programs like this help keep the kids motivated about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. We need kids to be interested enough in hard science to develop the technologies we need for the future.”


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