Paramount students get a leg up. Math and science targeted in pilot program

By Alison Black  Special to the Kalamazoo Gazette
11/16/2010
Paramount students get a leg up: Math and science targeted in pilot program
Published: Tuesday, November 16, 2010, 10:00 AM
By Alison Black | Special to the Kalamazoo Gazette The Kalamazoo Gazette

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 Kalamazoo GazetteParamount Charter Academy 8th graders Amanda Barkman, 12, top and Kaylie Butt, 13, note questions they have formulated about their science research project called "Moldy Reeds Cause Disease." Two of four Paramount Charter Academy 8th graders are working with WMU professors in a pilot research program at the WMU College of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
 
KALAMAZOO — It’s tough to get kids excited about science and math if they don’t see how the subjects affect what matters most in their own lives.

That’s the idea behind LEG UP, a new pilot program giving Paramount Charter Academy students a chance to explore the science underlying their own interests — and with the help of Western Michigan University engineering professors, perhaps patent new products designed to solve related problems.

Launched in September, LEG UP brings four Paramount students to a WMU science lab each week to spend an afternoon performing research.  They are supervised by LEG UP co-directors Steven Butt and Tycho Fredericks, professors in WMU’s Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering program.

Participating students are eighth-graders Amanda Barkman, Mitchell Botting and Kaylie Butt (Steven Butt’s daughter), and seventh-grader Lance Abbott.  All are advanced math students at Paramount.

The students selected their own research topics and will present their findings to the Paramount student body this spring.

“They aren’t receiving academic credit for this — it’s all volunteer,” said Paramount science teacher Amy Lawrence.  “They’re doing it because it really interests them.”

Research partners Botting and Abbott discussed several investigative paths, including figuring out a non-invasive way to clean dog paws after a trip outside and how to keep the soles of skateboarding shoes from quickly wearing out.
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Kalamazoo GazetteParamount Charter Academy eighth-graders, from left, Kaylie Butt, Amanda Barkman and Mitchell Botting and seventh-grader Lance Abbott work with Anna Kamphaus, an industrial engineering graduate student at Western Michigan University, as they begin their science research projects. The students are participating in a pilot research program at WMU.
 
Botting, a drummer, and Abbott, a guitar player, eventually decided on researching ergonomic solutions to the wear-and-tear a drum kit takes on the human body over time.

So far, the process has involved researching the topic online and at the WMU library.  It will soon include distributing surveys to drummers of different ages, and hopefully culminate in the creation of new drum-kit products, the pair said.

“I’ve actually considered engineering as a career now that I’ve seen what it’s like,” Botting said.  “When I used to hear the term engineer, I thought of people just doing a lot of complex math and science.  It is that, but it’s a lot more creative and requires a lot more imagination.”

Kaylie Butt, a flutist, and Barkman, an oboist, are trying to find a safe way to prevent microbe growth on musical instrument reeds.  Back at Paramount, the two have sharing their findings during science class discussions, Lawrence said.

“(Butt and Barkman’s work) is not only enriching them, it’s enriching the other kids in the classroom because they can learn about germ theory in a different way,” Lawrence said.

LEG UP was created because of Steven Butt’s desire — as a Paramount parent and school board member — to provide area students with “something beyond textbooks and tests.”  Butt and Fredericks are currently searching for grants that would allow them in coming years to expand the number of student participants and participating schools.

The pilot program is funded by WMU and in-kind donations by Butt and Fredericks.

The educators involved cite several program goals.

For Lawrence, it’s about changing student perceptions of science careers by exposing kids to possibilities.  Fredericks hopes the experience “will develop confidence in students so they know they can answer any question they want to answer.”

Butt hopes that by letting students explore what matters to them, STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) pursuits will become an “iterative process,” in which enthusiasm drives students to recognize new problems in every solution.

The cycle hones critical thinking skills and prepares students for successful careers in those fields, Butt said.

“How do I figure out what the problem is before I start working on it?  That’s one of the biggest problems professionally in the field,” Butt said.

 
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