Teachers Get Hands-On Lessons

A $100,000 county grant is helping spur creative thinking in the sciences and math in three South San Francisco elementary schools, and Saturday teachers got to experiment with the tools.

STEM -- science, technology, engineering and math – will benefit children at Spruce, Los Cerritos and Martin elementary schools, and programs in San Carlos and Coast cities as well.

“One of the purposes of this grant is to get children excited about those subjects – science, technology, engineering and math,” said Ana Linder, manager of the Community Learning Center, as the training got underway.

“We’re serving children underrepresented in those fields, hoping they’ll be interested in those careers later on.”

Several afterschool programs serving students needing extra help in the district won a multi-thousand dollar county grant that is being used toward hands-on science project kits and personalized training from the founder of Schmahl Science Workshops, a science program that offers workshops, camps, research, and creative ways for students to understand science kinesthetically.

The Community Learning Center assists third through fifth graders, majority of whom are from Spruce, in homework programs. Its primary program works onsite at Los Cerritos and Martin. A majority of the students are English language learners, Linder said.

Belinda Schmahl, founder of Schmahl Science Workshops, said the key is to adapt lessons to the way a child learns which in after-school programs is not always possible.

“It is important we understand how kids learn – whether visual, auditory or kinesthetic,” Schmahl said. “Kids need to become absorbed in something to see it and understand it. They need to be immersed in science vocabulary and to have fun with it.”

The projects will be adapted into the programs’ schedules between homework times and often on days with no homework, like Fridays, according to Lluneida Roman, assistant coordinator at the Community Learning Center.

“This will give students an opportunity to share ideas and work together,” Roman said. “It adds structure in other times like Fridays and gives the students ways to use movements and creativity while helping one another, and learning better collaboration, communication and cooperation.”