Fourth grader Evangelyn Vaughn could have cooled off in Thursday’s hot weather by swimming in the back-yard pool at her Batavia home, but she preferred to go to school and learn about science.
Evangelyn was one of 49 4th, 5th and 6th graders, mainly from Kane and DuPage County schools, who wanted to experience how things happen and why they work at the first five-day Science Explorers program at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora.
“I like science because it gets my attention,” said Evangelyn, a pupil at Storm School in Batavia.
Children at 9, 10 and 11 may be turned off to science, said Britta McKenna, program coordinator. The Aurora academy sponsors a host of community-service programs in addition to its primary role as a three-year high school for some of the state’s brightest students. One of its initiatives is to spur interest in science among pre-high school children.
For each of the five days, the academy brought in a scientist to lead classes in communications, waves, weather, flight and environmental management. Academy students assisted in the program’s second goal–to give teenagers experience in teaching younger children.
“Kids at these ages have fresh, new ways of looking at things,” said Douglas Sisterson, a visiting scientist and a research meteorologist at Argonne National Laboratory near Lemont.
Sisterson wanted the children to take from the classes the need to hone problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. “Some think that getting a 100 on a test means there is one right answer for every question,” he said.
“Teachers were trained 25 years ago in college that kids could learn everything they needed to know for the job they were going to get. Now they may change jobs seven times in their lifetime. They need to learn critical-thinking to apply to any job. Science does that well.”
Rachel Johnson, a 5th grader at Hill School in Aurora, said, “We made our own magnets. We learned how batteries work. We learn how airwaves work. It amazes me to learn how things can be true.”