Math And Science Night Equals Fun At Head O’ Meadow

By Larissa Lytwyn

Nearly 100 families attended Head O’ Meadow Elementary School’s annual Math and Science Night recently, exploring topics including weights and measurements, basic mathematical operations, and the scientific method.

“The evening is very popular each year,” said PTA member Kate Eggleston. Ms Eggleston said she loved the first year she attended the event with now-sixth grade daughter, Zoe. This year created new memories for her and third-grade son, Brady. Parents and children had the opportunity to peruse more than a dozen workstations conducting fun, educational experiments.

One experiment involved measuring the absorbency of various brand-name paper towels to identify the most effective product. Using “gram stackers,” families calculated the difference in weight between dry and moistened paper towels.

“We’ve found that Bounty was the strongest, most absorbent brand,” said Tim McCleary.

“This has been a really fun night,” added his wife, Jaime McCleary. “It’s very organized.”

Though he said he enjoyed the paper towel activity “a lot,” their son Cam said his favorite experiment in the three they had tried so far was constructing graphs using M&M candies. “We even got to eat the M&Ms!” Cam declared.

“The experiments are drawn right from our math and science curriculum,” said the school’s math and science specialist, Gail Maletz. “They are designed with the idea of being both fun and educational.”

Third grade teacher Kelcy Napolitano said the activities were valuable because of their “hands on” accessibility.

She explained that the evening targets the third grade level because of its midway placement between kindergarten and fourth grade. “It’s something the students look forward to each year,” she said. “Students can tell their siblings about it. There is a definite sense of anticipation.”

Ms Eggleston noted the number of fathers present, as well as couples who had chosen to enjoy the evening together.

“There has definitely been a trend of more dads becoming involved,” she said. “It’s a great way to bring families together.”

As the evening grew later and many of the families still seemed quite settled at their experiment tables, she laughed, “We’re going to have to kick them out! They don’t want to leave!”