After-school program mixes science with fun

Isis Chapman (left) and Toshiana Goodwin build a bridge during New Miami’s after-school program Wednesday Dec. 9, in New Miami.

Staff photo by Nick Daggy Isis Chapman (left) and Toshiana Goodwin build a bridge during New Miami’s after-school program Wednesday Dec. 9, in New Miami.

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By Richard O Jones, Staff Writer 10:32 PM Saturday, December 12, 2009

NEW MIAMI — It seems that students at New Miami schools can’t get enough science.

Since Nov. 1, around 150 students in kindergarten through 10th grade have been staying after school three days a week to work on science projects. That’s nearly 20 percent of the 800 students in the district.

Students don’t get a grade for participating, but they do get a snack, and at 5 p.m., they fill up two buses for the ride home.

“We have a curriculum that we use,” said Diane Greggo, after-school coordinator, “so it’s not just play time, but the experiments do make it fun.”

The students are divided into groups according to grade level and work their way through 11 Engineering in Elementary guides created by the Museum of Science in Boston.

Each unit begins with a story, Greggo said, that also incorporates some social studies by introducing characters from other countries. They then begin simple experiments that will lead up to a larger project.

In one classroom, the youngest students work on wiring a simple electrical circuit, an exercise that will lead them up to creating an alarm system, while fourth- and fifth-graders create and test sailboats so that they will eventually be able to build a working windmill. Yet another group builds a suspension bridge from Popsicle sticks, paper clips and string.

According to director of curriculum Dianna Muennich, the after-school science program has been funded by two grants, one state and one federal, totaling approximately $100,000, which pays for the teachers and transportation to keep the program running through May. She said she is applying for a different grant that will allow them to continue for five more years and open it to more students.

“We were getting so many kids that we didn’t have enough teachers to handle them all,” Greggo said.

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