Schools

FMA Live! Provides Hands-On Science Lesson for Middle Schoolers

VIDEO: NASA and Honeywell-sponsored music tour comes to Central Middle School.

For Plymouth-Canton eighth-graders, Thursday's science lesson included velcro suits, larger-than-life soccer balls, hoverchairs, hip-hop and sumo suits.

The students received a hands-on physics lesson Thursday from FMA Live!, a free hip-hop and science show at in Plymouth.

Three performances took place throughout the day Thursday, featuring hip-hop music, dancing, singing and onstage science experiments to teach students about physicist Isaac Newton's three laws of motion.

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For the lessons, teachers donned sumo suits and bounced off one another, two students raced across the stage in drag cars, two students competed to see who could jump the highest into a velcro wall.

Eric Olsen of Orlando, FL, co-host for FMA Live!, said the service is provided at no cost to schools to keep students interested in science.

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"We could have potential scientists and astronauts sitting in the audience today that hopefully we spark something inside of them where they'll follow careers of education in those fields," Olsen said.

Olsen said teachers love the exhibition because it's something they can recall in class to provide context to their own lessons.

Central Middle School Principal Anthony Ruela said the program, which made its second stop at the district in four years, is outstanding and the songs will be hard to get out of his head.

"I wound up watching it three times today so I'm going to be going home singing all the time," he joked. "I'll probably annoy my kids."

For some students, the event created a fun opportunity to get onstage in front of friends.

"It was fun because I like doing something in front of my peers," said Kiev Goodwin, who raced a red dragster across the stage during a segment of the show.

The highlight for students, however, might have come when teacher Nick Brandon's hoverchair was pushed forward into a giant whipped cream pie.

Between the lessons, videos depicting a humorous account of Newton's life in the style of a VH1 Behind the Music documentary played on two large screens.


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