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Science Teaching Doesn't Have to be Dry as CNY Students Learn Through Music

Chris Bolt/WAER News

A program put together by NASA and Honeywell is trying to get middle and high school students in Central New York more interested in science.  Sixth graders at Pine Grove Middle School in Eastwood got the message Wednesday.

Hip Hop Music, singing and dancing doesn’t sound much like a science class…but the message about motion in the music was used to teach Newton’s laws of physics.  Sixth grader Elaina Gooden got the message from one of the fun demonstrations.

“Two teachers wearing these big, huge costumes and they were talking about how Force equals Mass times Acceleration.  The teachers’ mass, once they pushed each other, they would fall over...and it was really funny.”

The multi-media production also appealed to sixth grader Owen White.

“All the videos they had playing on the side with the guy pretending to be Isaac Newton, which was pretty fun and scientific at the same time.”

Credit Chris Bolt/WAER News
A student jumping on a Velcro wall was used to demonstrate Newton's principle of 'Inertia' during the NASA/Honeywell science event.

Honeywell and NASA have been doing the presentations almost ten years… and as one of the hosts, Eric Olson says with some self-interest.

“Honeywell has an interest in this generation to be their workforce in coming years.  Studies have shown that jobs in Science, Tech, Engineering and Math are increasing at a huge rate, while at the same time students pursuing education in those career fields is decreasing.”

The Forces in motion show plays to students at Lincoln Middle School Friday. 

Chris Bolt, Ed.D. has proudly been covering the Central New York community and mentoring students for more than 30 years. His career in public media started as a student volunteer, then as a reporter/producer. He has been the news director for WAER since 1995. Dedicated to keeping local news coverage alive, Chris also has a passion for education, having trained, mentored and provided a platform for growth to more than a thousand students. Career highlights include having work appear on NPR, CBS, ABC and other news networks, winning numerous local and state journalism awards.