Message from the SEE Project Director
I Did on My Summer Vacation!
Many of you may remember an exercise that teachers
use to engage students when they return from summer break. It is
a writing activity designed to get students back into the school's
learning process while focusing on the fond, fun memories they
may have of their summer vacations. Teachers know that, over the
summer, students lose some of the information they learned during
their past school year, so they begin to re-engage the students
by focusing on their recent summer activities.
Wouldn’t it be great if children around the
country would write about the Science & Everyday Experiences
(SEE) projects they were involved in during their summer vacation?
As SEE stakeholders, how can we have that impact on the youth in
our communities? What enrichment and child development activities
can we sponsor through our churches and community organizations?
Here is some food for thought as summer begins for the children
in your community: SEE can make an enriching summer experience!
It can help parents and caregivers plan activities to help children
retain and obtain new information over the vacation.
The At Home With Math kit
from TERC, Inc., is a wonderful resource for use at home and on
vacation with younger students, aged 5 -11. It has a mathematics
activity, "When Should We Leave?" that helps the student
compute the time it will take to drive from home to a vacation
location. Use this and other games in the kit to engage children
in fun learning activities. Visit the TERC
website and download the activities for your summer or year-round
Use your home or library computer and go to other
child-friendly websites such as the Learning Enrichment section
Sites such as these provide ideas for engaging the mind, body,
and soul of the children in your charge. They present ideas for
improving writing skills, learning math at home, preparing for
science fairs and using parent-child activities to help ward off
boredom while making the summer fun.
Here are some other suggestions for summer activities
and for reinforcing the classroom learning experience:
Vacation Bible School SEE activities,
Visits to an IMAX Theatre,
Visits to science museums,
Summer carnivals at churches and
Nature walks, and
SEE activities at your family
The list can go on and on. The message is to turn off the
television and turn on the sense of adventure and learning
for the young person in your charge. The fun learning activities
you create for children in the summer may encourage the budding
of a new scientist in the family.