Talking about Learning today!
I am sorry to be a bore, and I promise this will be the last one for awhile.... but you really must see this show! The reviews from Stronger than a Bully, Mobile Ed Productions’ newest show are glowing with praise for Dave Mitchell.
This year Mobile Ed has added two new anti bullying school assembly programs to our great roster of curriculum based programs. The first, Stronger Than A Bully, is getting great reviews and is already sold out in many parts of the country and rapidly filling in everywhere else. The second, Shine Through, is only available in New York and New Jersey at present, but for schools in those areas we have a special offer.
We all know that kids need to learn about science. It is crucial that we train up a new generation of engineers and research scientists who will ensure that this country stay at the forefront in an area that is so important in this new technological world in which we live. But how do we get kids to be interested in science? Obviously, some kids have an innate curiosity about such things but for others... well... take my niece, for example. Start talking about science and her eyes roll back in her head as though I had just suggested we spend an afternoon watching paint dry.
For many years, while my own two children were in elementary school here in Michigan, I was the Dad in charge of scheduling school assemblies. I brought in a lot of different programs. The principal at the time was a really wise man named Jim Felix. Jim had been principal at our school in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan for many years. A tall, Gregory Peck kind of fellow, Jim had experience and wisdom to be envied by any young principal. Every year I would meet with him and go over the programs I was suggesting, and listen to him fill me in on anything good he had come across and we would decide which shows to bring in for the school. Jim was always interested in the science programs. He said he believed that part of the reason our school did so well in science scores was that every year we hit the kids with at least one and sometimes two different science assemblies. Good ones. Not glorified “magic” shows, but real science like chemistry, physics, astronomy and so on. And it did, indeed, show up in the science scores every year. The students really liked science and wanted to learn more.
That is the key to science assemblies. It isn’t what facts the kids actually learn in the assembly that is important. What is important is that they see that science is not boring, not dry, not something to be avoided, but rather how exciting it can be to witness chemical reactions, or the effects of Liquid Nitrogen or to ride on a hovercraft. What is important is to give them an enthusiasm for the subject which will allow skilled teachers to then fill their minds through classroom followups. Science assemblies are like can openers for the brain. They open up a young mind so the teachers can then fill it with all the good stuff kids need to learn.
Geoff Beauchamp is the Regional Manager of Mobile Ed Productions where "Education Through Entertainment" has been the guiding principal since 1979. Mobile Ed Productions produces and markets quality educational school assembly programs in the fields of science, history, writing, astronomy, natural science, mathematics, character issues and a variety of other curriculum based areas. In addition, Mr. Beauchamp is a professional actor with 30 years of experience in film, television and on stage. He created and still performs occasionally in Mobile Ed's THE LIVING LINCOLN.
Read More
For many years, while my own two children were in elementary school here in Michigan, I was the Dad in charge of scheduling school assemblies. I brought in a lot of different programs. The principal at the time was a really wise man named Jim Felix. Jim had been principal at our school in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan for many years. A tall, Gregory Peck kind of fellow, Jim had experience and wisdom to be envied by any young principal. Every year I would meet with him and go over the programs I was suggesting, and listen to him fill me in on anything good he had come across and we would decide which shows to bring in for the school. Jim was always interested in the science programs. He said he believed that part of the reason our school did so well in science scores was that every year we hit the kids with at least one and sometimes two different science assemblies. Good ones. Not glorified “magic” shows, but real science like chemistry, physics, astronomy and so on. And it did, indeed, show up in the science scores every year. The students really liked science and wanted to learn more.
That is the key to science assemblies. It isn’t what facts the kids actually learn in the assembly that is important. What is important is that they see that science is not boring, not dry, not something to be avoided, but rather how exciting it can be to witness chemical reactions, or the effects of Liquid Nitrogen or to ride on a hovercraft. What is important is to give them an enthusiasm for the subject which will allow skilled teachers to then fill their minds through classroom followups. Science assemblies are like can openers for the brain. They open up a young mind so the teachers can then fill it with all the good stuff kids need to learn.
Geoff Beauchamp is the Regional Manager of Mobile Ed Productions where "Education Through Entertainment" has been the guiding principal since 1979. Mobile Ed Productions produces and markets quality educational school assembly programs in the fields of science, history, writing, astronomy, natural science, mathematics, character issues and a variety of other curriculum based areas. In addition, Mr. Beauchamp is a professional actor with 30 years of experience in film, television and on stage. He created and still performs occasionally in Mobile Ed's THE LIVING LINCOLN.
Continuing today in the theme of exploring how school assembly programs augment the learning process in terms of state academic standards, we turn to Indiana.
In Social Studies, along with many other states, Indiana fourth graders are required to learn about Indiana state history. In particular , the very first section, Standard 1, and the very first two bullet points read as follows:
- Identify and compare the major early cultures that existed in the region that became Indiana prior to contact with Europeans
Example - Paleo-Indians such as Hopewell, Adena, and the Mississippian cultures
- Identify and describe historic Native American Indian groups that lived in Indiana at the time of the European exploration, including ways these groups adapted to and interacted with the physical environment. (Individuals,Society and Culture)
Example: Miami,Shawnee, Potawatomi and Lenape (Delaware)
There is more,but you get the point. Grade 4 is expected to learn about the native tribes indigenous to Indiana. Further exploration of the standards shows that grades 3 and 5 also cover this same material, as does Piankeshaw Trails, Mobile Ed’s new program specifically designed to teach kids about the native tribes of the Ohio valley including Indiana. All the points above are covered in this awesome and exciting program and a lot more. And the presentation is so much fun the kids don’t realize they are learning!
Now lets look at Science.
For most kids history is an ugly thought. Learning about history has about as much appeal as eating broccoli. Mention history to a lot of kids and their eyes glaze over with a look that says:
The summer is winding down, and although we have not yet seen Labor Day, there are already schools starting classes in some states, and getting ready to start in others. Like a big sleepy bear coming out of hibernation, the world of education is stirring again, and with that awakening comes a realization in many places that the school assemblies have not been scheduled for the coming year yet.
The Boy Scouts of America was founded in February of 1910, and just celebrated the 100th anniversary of it's birth. But the Boy Scouts were actually founded a few years earlier than that, back in 1906 in England by Lord Baden Powell.
