Summer Program Made Exciting
In Newark
Newark’s School to Career Office was looking for something to spice up their Summer Program and C-Tech’s Communications Pathways Series provided the solution at Lafayette Street Public School. This series of student-centered mini-programs helped students; through a variety of hands-on activities learn technology, math, and science. The teacher, Ms. Matos, with only one hour of training, was able to take her students, mostly age 14, through several programs.
With the Telecom Activity Project (TAP), students worked as a team to build the TAP unit-a fully functional telegraph key. They created an electromagnet, the “engine” of the key, by winding 20 feet of copper wire in a coil. How do we know it’s 20 feet? Ms. Matos’ class used real world math by counting the tiles on the floor that are nine inches on a side. How many nine-inch tiles make 20 feet?
They then learned about codes throughout history back to the days of Julius Caesar, and famous literary codes from the works of Edgar Allen Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Her students also calculated resistance, voltage and current for Ohm’s Law. As Ms. Matos stated, “To see a project go from start to finish and hold the students’ interest is a good experience for a teacher.”
Ms. Matos and Her Class Become Light Voyagers
Moving on to Light Voyagers, her class learned how light travels in an optical fiber “light pipe” and studied the speed of light. Using the information provided in their student manuals, they calculated how many nanoseconds it takes for light to travel from one end of the hallway to the other (113, in case you’re interested), from one end of the playground to the other, and from Newark, New Jersey to Paris, France—there’s a good Geography lesson.
When the school year begins, the CPS programs will move to their permanent home at Newark’s Wilson Avenue School. These programs will assist boys and girls to further their knowledge of math, science, history and literature through hands-on technology.
