Fourteen third graders from Durham’s Central Park School for Children invaded the NCSSM campus on Saturday, May 21 to compete in The SUMmit Challenge. The event gave the young students an opportunity to experience a race designed by Dawnn Breynae, program coordinator and digital media specialist for the Distance Education and Extended Programs division.
Through various games and activities, the students could apply what they’ve learned throughout the year from iMentor, a mentorship outreach program matching NCSSM residential students with the third graders. They explored coding with Scratch, Makey Makey, Alnuge (alphapet, numbers and geometric shapes) and fingerprinting, fitness and measurement activities, Biography Green screen, Artbots, Gallon Man, Forces and Motion, and virtual reality with Google Cardboard stations.
“I enjoyed figuring out how to make the Google Cardboard app get us to where we needed to go in order to help coach the kids to success. Also I enjoyed all the kids’ amazement and wonder at the cardboard application and views. And how can I not mention the amazing Makey-Makey journey. Very impressive! The creator(s) should be so proud!” one parent commented. Another said, “I love that my student got to experience the School of Science and Math and have a relationship with students there.”
NCSSM instructors and students visited the third-grade classroom regularly throughout the year and the iMentors engaged in weekly live WebEx sessions to assist the students with their understanding of various science, math and English language arts concepts.
Thank you to all those who contributed to the program throughout the year. The physics department provided cables, among a number of departments that shared resources. Jeff Hatley, also a digital media specialist in DEEP, and his wife spent a Friday night with Breynae and the NCSSM students to create the amazing Makey Makey Journey, spearheaded by Marcus Mefferd ’17.
