Featured Entertainment Stories
Apr 16, 2009 6:18 pm US/Central
Hip-Hop Show Helps Students Get Down With Gravity
ST. PAUL (WCCO) ―
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"The math and the science that they're learning here is everything they're learning in the classroom, but just being applied to their everyday lives," said math teacher Denise Kapler.
CBS
Imagine students getting energized about science and math. That's happening thanks to a national science production.
The show, called
FMA, stands for Isaac Newton's second law: Force = Mass x Acceleration.
It's science in a new way, with hip hop and crazy experiments. WCCO-TV caught up with students at Washington Technology Magnet Middle School in St. Paul to see what they thought of the production.
It isn't MTV Jams or 106 & Park. The science swag is put on by Honeywell and NASA.
"I love how they dance and sing," said one seventh grader.
But there's a message in the hip-hop music. Energetic experiments demonstrate Newton's three laws of motion and gravity.
"It's Newton's first law," said Christian Webster, a student at Washington Technology Magnet Middle School. "If you push someone on top of one of those roller-cart things and you have three people, you can jump over them."
"The math and the science that they're learning here is everything they're learning in the classroom, but just being applied to their everyday lives," said math teacher Denise Kapler. "There's force, there's mass, acceleration."
The whole idea is to get students interested in math, science and technology.
"It just opened my eyes to new experiences," said Mitchell Feske, an eight grade student.
"I thought it was really fun because they made learning about science a lot more fun than if you were learning about it in a classroom," said Hannah Wolf, a seventh grader.
It's a good thing students like Hannah are paying attention. Labor department statistics show the demand for jobs in those fields will increase five times faster than other careers over the next decade.
"The hip hop, the energy of the program, there's just a lot actually that's going on that speaks to a lot of different careers. A lot of different paths they can take with what they are starting to learn now, and hopefully dream. Dream big," said Kapler.
The performance was put on without any cost to the St. Paul School District. Several different schools checked out the event.
Sonya Goins, Producer
Contact Sonya
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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