MHS, adult volunteers visit Weston School for annual event
By:Mary Ellen Zangara
Friday’s Math and Science Day for students at Weston School turned out to be a day of learning and fun. The morning was filled with fun activities in the classrooms with the help of parent volunteers and Manville High School students.
From 8:30-11:30 a.m., each classroom was turned into a science and math lab with the volunteers and students showing the young children different things to do with science and math. The students and high school volunteers worked on the projects in four half-hour sessions, before the teachers and their students rotated to a different classrooms.
In each grade level, the activities were age appropriate, including the kindergartners, who were able to make modeling dough, see how a ramp works, watch a balloon take off, and use Mini-wheat to measure.
First-graders learned about magnets by using paper clips to see how they cling to the magnet, how to graph, making bubbles with soap, rainbows, and level and pulleys.
Older students in second grade were huffing and puffing, learned about density, made 3D shapes from straws and marshmallows, counted with a Froot Loop abacus, and counted with pennies.
Third-graders studied geologic formation, the rain forest, made a toothpick tower, earth art and made mixtures.
Don Frank, principal of Weston School, was impressed with how the day was going.
"We have had a marked change in terms of district cooperation with events like today’s science day. We have 30 students here who volunteered from the high school and they have done that for science day for two years as well as multicultural day, and it is such a pleasure to work with Dr. Logan. The teachers put in a lot of hard work for a day like this, like moving the children around, organizing, getting parent volunteers together. The children are learning a lot of science and math working with graphing skills, making hypothesis, and using scientific method. It’s just another type of wonderful activity that the children to be involved in," he said.
Later in the afternoon, students competed in a math-a-thon in the auditorium against other students from their grade level. Teachers chose students to represent their class and they went up on stage to answer math questions and ring a buzzer to see if they were the first one with the correct answer.
Manville High School students Eileen Evans, Aimee Ferrebee, Melody Leach, Nelly Levitsky, Scott Petzinger, Agnes Jackowski, Magdelena Bujek, Katie Jerzewski, Glen Liszczak, Laura Tchir, Melissa Grimm, Ginny Lee, Jen Manderski, Joshua Krantz, Kelly Bauer, Alysia Sawyer, Valerie Hung, Gabriela Firak, Laura Gillette, Amy Cutler, Alicia Mathewson, Ali Williams, Dana Shaute, Stefanie Rodriguez, Corinne VanDerVeer, Rebecca Rodriguez, Connie Conti, Cathy Gorbatuk, Sylvia Jakubowski, Amanda Kita, Sarah Ortman, Jacie Jankowy, Katie Walinchus, Ashley Davey, Amanda Weston, Michael Chabra, Amanda Andreyhcak, Steve Anderson and Maggie Barone all came to Weston to help with the activities.