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home > 2012 feature stories
The Army’s Edgewood Chemical Biological Center brings innovative ‘math summer camps’ to Cecil County Public Schools
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Photo credit: Mary Doak, U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center
ECBC Environmental Engineer Bruce Steltzer (left) and Director of Program Integration Suzanne Milchling (middle) join professional development summer camp for Cecil County Public Schools educators, where they apply math and physics to a real-world sports material design. |
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Photo credit: Jennifer Carroll, U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center
A teacher at Cecil County Public Schools, who was previously trained on DimensionM, assists local students in learning how to solve algebra problems using this immersive video gaming technology. |
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Photo credit: Jennifer Carroll, U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center
ECBC Chemical Engineers Steven Yurechko (middle left) and Mark Ciampaglio (middle right) share their expertise with math teachers at Cecil County Public Schools during a 3D video gaming training that helps reinforce math concepts in the classroom. |
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Photo credit: Jennifer Carroll, U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center
ECBC Chemical Engineer Christy Hoppe (right) helps Cecil County Public Schools teachers apply math and physics concepts to the design of a golf ball.
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ELKTON, Md. – Looking to enrich science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education in its local community, the U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) infused three week-long math summer camps, 23-27 July, with action and real-world relevance for students and teachers at Cecil County Public Schools.
The focus of these three initiatives was to engage 35 teachers and 13 students in hands-on STEM experiences to help reinforce math concepts in a meaningful way.
“With the implementation of the Common Core State Standards in Maryland in the school year of 2013-2014, it is becoming even more important to help students yield better results in math,” said Community and Educational Outreach Program Manager Mary Doak. “Sponsored by the National Defense Education Program, ECBC’s ongoing STEM educational outreach efforts aim to relay the importance and application of math skills in the context of emerging STEM career fields.”
Subject matter experts (SMEs) at ECBC─ a critical national asset in the chemical biological defense community─ are dedicated to sharing how they apply math and science in their every day jobs. In support of the Center’s ‘Adopt-a-SME’ initiative, four of its engineers partnered with Cecil County Public Schools teachers in two professional development workshops ‘DimensionM’ and ‘Math Sports.’
“We truly rely on our nation’s educators to succeed in shaping our future workforce,” said ECBC Chemical Engineer Steven Yurechko. “It is a very rewarding experience to train with such committed teachers that are willing to go the extra mile to make their math lessons more relevant for their students.”
The ‘DimensionM’ module is a digital math intervention tool that enables teachers to excite their students about solving math problems through video gaming ─an innovative, appealing approach in today’s classroom. Educators who participated in the ‘Math Sports’ module applied math and physics to real-world projects such as the development of balls used in different sport disciplines.
In addition to learning new techniques that help make math more fun and real for students, they established relationships with participating U.S. Army engineers who will support their classroom lessons next school year with STEM-related activities, demonstrations and lectures.
The DimensionM math summer boot camp offered local middle school students an innovative way to practice their algebraic math problem-solving skills in preparation for the following school year. Every morning of the week, they used the 3D video game DimensionM and expressed their enthusiasm about this method of reinforcing basic math concepts.
“Before this math boot camp, I didn’t like math at all,” said Sunshyne Acosta, who was a fifth-grade student at Thomson Estates Elementary School and will be going into sixth-grade. “But when we started playing, I started doing the math without even realizing that I was doing the math.”
“I am really starting to like math,” she said, “and I am determined to improve my grades.”
STEM Outreach Stories: 2012
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