Science has never been so, well, musical. Think Schoolhouse Rock!, but with live singing, dancing and demonstrations. FMA Live! Forces in Motion is an award-winning science education concert that uses Newton’s Laws of motion to excite and engage students while encouraging them to pursue a future in science, technology, engineering or math (STEM). The program is sponsored through a partnership between Honeywell and NASA in an effort to support public education. Celebrating its tenth anniversary of traveling to public schools in the United States, Mexico and Canada, the program has been viewed by 400,000 students. Coronado’s assembly is a part of the tour that will see FMA Live! visit its 1,000th school.
At the end of each assembly, the volunteer students and teachers, NASA and Honeywell employees, FMA Live! performers and other distinguished guest gathered for a group picture.
FMA Live! gets its name from Newton’s second law of motion (force = mass x acceleration). The show is led by three professional performers who sing, dance and even joke while on stage. On either side of the stage is a large video screen used not only for short educational videos (starring none other than Sir Isaac Newton himself), but also for displaying the words of the songs being sung on stage. This provides a visual learning tool for those students who may learn better by seeing the words instead of just hearing them. Each segment of the program also includes a live demonstration that helps illustrate the law of motion being discussed.
CMS Yearbook staff and Digital Media Class KCMS students were out in force documenting the assemblies.
Student and teacher volunteers and other guests from the second assembly gather for a group photo.
The entire program was presented in Coronado for no cost to our students or our district. Honeywell and NASA financially supported the assembly, a bus to transport the fifth grade students from Strand Elementary to the high school gym and shirts for every student. CUSD was nominated to benefit from FMA Live! by the Department of Defense Education Activity (DODEA) as part of the Joining Forces Campaign.
Recognizing that military children, on average, attend six to nine different school systems, Joining Forces makes it a priority to support K-12 military connected children. Regional School Liaison, Kelli May, explained to the crowd that the school liaison mission is “to connect bases with schools like Coronado’s and create opportunities for military kids.” The mission of the liaison program seeks to provide resources that “reduce the impact of the mobile lifestyle on military school-aged children and families.” She made a point to recognize the military children in the audience and thank them and their families for their service to our country.
Eric, John James “JJ”, and Sharmaine were the cast of the FMA Live! assemblies, full of information and energy.
Mike Madsen, Honeywell President of Defense and Space traveled from Phoenix to be at the assembly and offered that, “Honeywell is proud to be sponsoring FMA Live! and we are even prouder to be here in Coronado today with the students. Inspiring these students to have careers in STEM is really planting the seeds for our future here at Honeywell and for the future of the students.”
CUSD School Board President Dawn Ovrom stated that, “This is an amazing opportunity. These guys come from NASA and Honeywell and do this all around the country. They were at Camp Pendleton yesterday and are at our school today. We had Representative Duncan Hunter, Congresswoman Susan Davis and Congressman Scott Peters and, of course, all of us, school board, teachers, students. The kids and teachers got to be involved. It was fun to watch.”
Fellow school board member Maria Simon added, ” It’s a great partnership. This is how kids learn, with music and the modern part of it, incorporating Sir Isaac Newton into something modern was really effective. The kids were stomping their feet and clapping their hands.”
Steven Schmidt of NASA offers some opening comments to the 3rd assembly while Cecelia Tejeda, of Honeywell, listens.
The presentations were split into three different time slots. Each assembly commenced with comments by a NASA visitor. Steven Schmidt, Assistant Director for Strategic Planning at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center told the audience that NASA isn’t just about astronauts and engineers. He shared that lots of things the students are familiar with were developed at NASA, like grooves in the freeway to wash away water, software to develop roller coasters, edible toothpaste, ear thermometers and more. The team at NASA includes chemists, lawyers, geologists, and engineers.
Sharmaine introduces Ms. Tippets the Sumo wrestler. Ms. Tippets and Ms. Jensen entertained the crowd.
The focus of the program is Newton’s Universal Law of Gravity and Three Laws of Motion and also highlights how to connect science and engineering to everyday life. Each law of motion was introduced with a song and then a short video. A demonstration involving students followed to help further explain each law. The first law of motion, Inertia, was demonstrated using a huge wall and two students in Velcro suits.
Eighth grader Nick, helps demonstrate Newton’s first law of motion, Inertia.
Sixth graders Nick (blue) and Tyler (red) also helped demonstrate the first law of motion, inertia.
The second law, F=MA, had a student administering a kick (force) to a mass (soccer ball) to make the ball accelerate. This task was easy with a regular ball, but the FMA Live! staff had some surprises (2 much bigger soccer balls). Then, two staff members in sumo wrestling suits exhibited how much more effective a force can be when acceleration is added. This was, perhaps, the most entertaining part of the assembly. Miss Tippets rumbled with Miss Jensen in one assembly and Mr. Ramirez took on Mr. Crooker in another. Each side of the gym cheered for a particular participant. There was lots of noise and cheering.
Sixth grader Jessie, listens to Eric explain F=ma and how it relates to her adding force (kicking) to the soccer ball.
Even with Eric and Jessie combining force, the huge soccer ball has too much mass to accelerate.
The last law of motion, action and reaction, was demonstrated with a bottle rocket. The final interactive display involved four students, each a team of two, using all three laws of motion to shoot “apples” at a teacher who was eventually doused in applesauce. Ms. Noonan and Mrs. McCann were volunteers for this task.
Science teacher Kevin Paiz-Ramirez and Counselor Mr. Crooker get ready to rumble to demonstrate F=ma.
Sixth grade P.E. teacher, Bonnie McCann, gets doused in apple sauce!
The assembly concluded with a video of Sir Isaac Newton interviewing a NASA scientist at the Jet Propulsion Lab. Newton explained that for every one astronaut in space, there are 300 jobs on the ground. Scientist Bobak Ferdowsi talked about his work with the Mars Rover “Curiosity” and encouraged the students to “do what you love.” The sentiments on the video echoed those of Steven Schmidt, stressing, again, that NASA is more than engineers. JPL has an artist in residence whose job is to create clever ways to show how science works. There are employees in finance, math, and even communication. Ferdowsi stressed that the students can “be part of NASA, this really cool thing” by doing what they love.
The program is entertaining and educational and follows the objective outlined by the Next Generation Science Education Standards for students in grades 5-8.
Performer Eric shared that he enjoys being a part of FMA Live! because he gets “to travel and see kids, encouraging them to live their dreams and hopefully pursue something in STEM.”
Seventh grader Anna said, “I thought it was really cool. I loved how they had the kids and the teachers interact. That made it fun. I learned Newton’s laws and this will definitely help me remember them.”
Students and teachers from the third assembly pose with FMA Live! crew Sharmaine, JJ and Eric, Cecelia Tejeda of Honeywell, School Liaison officer Kelli May and CMS Principal Dr. Jay Marquand.
Brittlee Heintzelman, a CMS sixth grader, offered, “I thought it was a really fun experience to see and I thought it was cool. I learned the three laws of Newton.”
Performer John James, who has been with the program for four years, summed it up pretty well. “My favorite thing about FMA Live! is that the kids get to be involved and they take something home that they probably didn’t even expect they would receive before they walked through the doors. It’s very rewarding to know that at the end of the day they are singing our songs and they can take a test and they are bopping their heads while they are writing their answers. They don’t have to memorize a whole paragraph out of a book. It’s explaining the same thing on stage in a way they relate; music, dance and entertainment.”
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Kellee Hearther
Staff Writer
eCoronado.com
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