Detroit Science Center Brings STARLAB to Daycroft Montessori School

Daycroft students viewing the starlab

Portable Planetarium Is One of Many “Traveling Science” Programs Conducted by DSC for Daycroft Students’ Learning and Fun During Parent-Teacher Conferences

Ann Arbor, MI (October 25, 2010) — On a bright and sunny day last week, all through the morning and afternoon, groups of students at Daycroft Montessori School of Ann Arbor gathered in turns and strode down the halls to the school’s gymnasium.

It wasn’t for PE. It wasn’t for recess. Rather, the students were headed to the gym to see and study the night sky in all of its constellation-filled glory.

Wait a second. The night sky? In the gym? In the middle of the day? How could it be?

Simple. The students were experiencing STARLAB, an inflatable, portable planetarium brought to Daycroft’s Elementary Campus on Zeeb Road by staff members of the Detroit Science Center (www.sciencedetroit.org).

STARLAB was just one of many math- and science-oriented activities the students enjoyed throughout that memorable Wednesday, October 20, while their parents and teachers engaged in conferences.

Hands-on Learning from Physics and Fractions to Gardens and Green

Each Daycroft classroom, from kindergarten through grades 5-6, visited STARLAB for an engrossing 30-minute presentation on the current season’s sky. Students crawled through a narrow passage into STARLAB’s dome-like space, just big enough to project the stars, planets, and moon onto its ceiling.

STARLAB is one of the Detroit Science Center’s “Traveling Science” programs. These hands-on workshops are keyed to groups of young learners from early childhood through high school age. The programs commonly take place at schools, churches, community centers, and scout meetings.

In Daycroft’s other DSC-hosted programs, students explored how gardens grow by creating their own terrariums, learned about vibration and sound by making musical instruments from straws, and found fun in being green by reconstructing old shutters, stools, and pipes into putt-putt golf and ring-toss games.

The students also predicted and tested the effectiveness of parachutes of different sizes in safely landing wrapped eggs. The bigger the parachute the better, as it turned out. This helped students grasp concepts of fractions, percentages, proportion, and scale.

Another activity explored the effects of motion and friction. Solving the “Missing Money Mystery” put the correct use of decimals in focus.

On hand to guide the students were Don Klaser, the Detroit Science Center’s manager of presentation outreach, and Scott Young, who coordinates education outreach and camp activities for the organization.

Also helping out from the DSC were educator Amy Seipke and presenters Freeman Harrison and Cathy Mandas.

About Daycroft Montessori School

Daycroft Montessori School blends the distinctive student-centered teaching methods of Maria Montessori with traditional and progressive teaching methods. Daycroft thus accomplishes its educational mission: to provide a personalized learning environment that appreciates individual differences, nurtures the whole child, and enables students to develop at their own pace and achieve to their full potential.

Daycroft is one of Washtenaw County's leading independent schools. It began as a preschool program in 1968. Daycroft has since grown to include a full-day kindergarten program, an elementary school program through 6th grade, before-school and after-school care, summer camp programs, and enrichment classes.

Daycroft has earned accreditation from the Independent Schools Association of the Central States (ISACS; www.isacs.org). It is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS; www.nais.org) and is affiliated with the American Montessori Society (AMS; www.amshq.org).

Daycroft Preprimary School (preschool and kindergarten) is at 100 E. Oakbrook Dr., Ann Arbor, MI 48104. Phone: (734) 930-0333.

Daycroft Elementary School (grades K through 6) and Daycroft's administrative offices are at 1095 N. Zeeb Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48103. Phone: (734) 662-3335.

Media Contact:
Chris Kochmanski
DesignHub, Inc.
(734) 944-8705
chris@design-hub.com

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