The average elementary school student doesn’t spend a lot of his summer vacation thinking about math. The result? By time the new school year rolls around, many have fallen up to two months behind in the subject, according to information from a national institute promoting summer learning.
The roughly 80 incoming fourth- through seventh-graders studying computer animation, engineering and coding this month at James Monroe Elementary in northwest Santa Rosa were part of a new summer program designed to change that.
The monthlong math institute is a pilot program of the CalStateTEACH program run out of Cal State Monterey Bay in collaboration with Santa Rosa City Schools. It’s meant to maintain students’ math skills over the summer while also providing work experience for CalStateTEACH students seeking teaching credentials.
Ryan Thompson, who is serving as summer school coordinator for Santa Rosa City Schools, said the program is one of many the district is offering this summer in an effort to prevent summer learning loss.
“Kids can come into the new school year without that summer regression, with brains ready for the school year,” Thompson said.
On Thursday, Elizandro Garibay, 9, employed his recently honed multiplication skills in a video he was making Thursday using stop-motion animation, where the objects in the video are moved in small increments between frames. In the video, a fluffy yellow chicken went “mmmh” while mulling the product of 10 times 5.
The video contained 223 frames he’d created one-by-one using a video program on a Chromebook.
It was the fourth and final week of the camp, and the focus was on creating animation using computers. It followed three weeks spent building math and science skills. In week three, students learned computer programming; in week two they learned engineering; and in week one they brushed up on basic multiplication, division, addition and subtraction skills using games like cards and dice.
Teachers seeking their credentials through the CalStateTEACH program led numerous classrooms in teams of two. They said they valued the opportunity to gain experience being in charge of a classroom while also collaborating with other teachers.
“It’s really given me a chance to learn to get to know children at different grade levels,” said Nicole Rowland, who is pursuing her teaching credential while working at a Boys & Girls Club.
Ken Schwinn, a faculty adviser for CalStateTEACH, said plans were for the program to continue next year.
Students interviewed didn’t seem to mind spending a month of their summer on math.
For Garibay’s brother, Alexis Hernandez, the highlight had been the engineering lessons, particularly an exercise where students created bridges from Popsicle sticks and then tested them to see if the structures would survive a miniature earthquake.
“I was happy when my bridge survived the quake,” he said.
Memphis Roetter, 10, said his favorite part had been computer programming.
“There’s something called binary code and we got to use it to write jokes and riddles,” he said.
Nolan McAdams, 10, seemed particularly taken with the stop-motion animation. Drawing on yellow Post-It notes, he created an elaborate storyboard for a movie titled “The kid that got warped into a video game.”
He was preparing to put those ideas in motion by drawing stick figures in a computer program called iMotion. “I had no idea about how stop motion worked” before this week, he said. He said he loved getting a chance to try it himself.
“It was easier than I thought.”
Staff Writer Jamie Hansen blogs about education at extracredit.blogs.pressdem?ocrat.com. You can reach her at 521-5205 or jamie.hansen@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter ?@jamiehansen.
