Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 7, 1991 TAG: 9103070086
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MELISSA DEVAUGHN/ NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
"How does the slip thingy work?"
"What does a bearing do?"
"What happens if a robber gets over the fence even if the alarm goes off?"
First-graders ask the darndest questions - and that was the whole idea.
This was "Math in Action," designed to get children involved in mathematics.
Poly Scientific and Virginia Tech business college representatives spent Wednesday at Gilbert Linkous Elementary School, introducing first- through fifth-graders to "real world" math. "They taught me about the circuits at our school," said Kristen Emmett, 6. "I didn't know about that."
They watched slides, they saw ball bearings and slip rings. They were told about how slip rings are used to make helicopters and those moving cameras that watch people in stores.
But, for the most part, they fidgeted, scratched and poked each other as the big, adult, technical words soared over tiny heads.
"I don't know what happened. I don't know what I learned," said Brian Lyttle, 7, after it was all over.
"They talked too fast," said Kristen. "They went bauh, bauh, bauh, and I couldn't hear them."
Adam Compeau, 7, seemed to have a vague idea of what he heard: "Well, slip rings, they turn around without breaking the wire."
"Sometimes they're on rockets and airplanes and cars and trains and boats and helicopters," said George McArthur, 7.
Then the kids had a real problem to solve: laying out a plan for placing machinery in a factory.
Betty Kuhn's first-graders split into three groups, each with a grid representing a factory floor. They were given colored paper representing the equipment, and they were given dimensions and were told to arrange everything in the most efficient way.
Thus, more questions.
William Riegert, 7, was confused. "How come this paper's too small?" he asked.
"This is hard," said Adam.
"I don't understand," said George.
After many questions and much confusion, Kuhn and room mother Susan Karbaf sorted through the directions, explained them to the children, then the fun (and the math) began.
The children counted blocks on the grid. They counted blocks on the colored paper. They cut out paper. They fought over paper. They colored in the grid. They fought over crayons.
In the end, they had what resembled a blueprint for a factory. Each machine was color-coded - and a bit out of the lines.
Susan Grinnan, Poly Scientific employee relations manager, said the program is specifically directed to children: "Our main purpose is that we are advocates of the education system, of course, but also we realize the importance of math . . . they [the children] will use it in the real world."
The problem the first-graders tackled is a common one at Poly Scientific, Grinnan said.
by CNB