PROGRAM MOTIVATES KIDS TO SCIENCE, MATH GROWTH

One of the unfathomable disclosures Americans have come to grips with in recent years is that school children in the United States have fallen behind their peers from other countries in the study of science and mathematics. For years, America took pride in its educational and technological leadership; being surpassed by nations such as Japan is certainly a blow to that self-image. In addressing educational reforms, America has focused on improving its math and science status. A local project has not only concentrated on that improvement but decries the notion that students and classrooms are natural repellents.

The project is known as KSAM, the K-6 Science and Mathematics Improvement Program. The effort originated with faculty members at Southeast Missouri State University with the hope of exciting young students about these two academic disciplines. According to developers of the program, statistics showed that many children sour on science and math before getting to junior high school; reaching these students at an early age would possibly cultivate a long-running interest in the subjects.

A group of educators was brought together to consider the problem of how to better teach science and math at the elementary level. The findings were substantial enough to fetch two majors grants from the National Science Foundation and another one from Southwestern Bell. A half-dozen years after its inception, about 10,000 teachers have participated in the program statewide, passing along the new-found knowledge and techniques to about 200,000 students. From this meager idea have grown KSAM centers in the Missouri cities of Springfield, Warrensburg, Columbia, Kirksville and Maryville, in addition to Cape Girardeau. KSAM is also spreading to other states, including Illinois, Iowa and New Jersey.

Subjects involved include earth science, life science, physical science and mathematics. The activities involved relate these disciplines not in terms of hard facts and boring figures but in terms everyday life. The premise is simple: science and math are less intimidating when they happen around you than when they appear in a textbook. Lessons come from magnets, plants, paper clips and baking soda, and not a forbidding recitation of facts. Children are inherently interested in discovery; no rule says the act of discovery can't be fun.

Most scientific discovery has come about as a result of individual resourcefulness. We applaud the resourcefulness of KSAM developers Ernest Kern and Ed Stoever for devising an innovative and motivational way to present science and math to young students.