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Summer Study Adds Up to Fun

Posted on: Monday, 5 September 2005, 15:00 CDT

Imagine this: it's the middle of summer vacation and middle school students are waking up early to study math and science and English - and loving it.

"The teacher made it fun. I learned a lot," Joseph Washington, an eighth-grader at Northwestern Middle School.

Joseph said he got up at 5:30 a.m. to make the 7:30 a.m. start of classes at the Baton Rouge Community College Middle School Summer Academy.

"It was worth it. I really enjoyed the camp," he said.

John Adams, a seventh-grader at St. Jude School, said he especially liked dissecting a pig's heart.

"We don't get to dissect until this year at school, so now I have a heads up," he said.

John also enjoyed learning math shortcuts and how to better understand word problems.

Both skills are proving valuable as he prepares to compete in math tournaments for St. Jude this year, he said.

John also expressed gratitude that the English teacher helped them polish their grammatical skills.

"I knew I needed help with commas," John said.

John saw his first tangible benefit when his back-to-school book review grade was higher this year than last year.

The reality of money became clearer when participants created pie charts using wage-related numbers.

They started with a base salary, but then had to proportion figures for food, taxes, housing and other necessary expenses, John said.

"Whatever was left was for fun. ... I thought it was going to be a little bit more," he said.

Participants also planned budgets for foreign vacations, researching on the Internet and through books about their chosen destinations and then creating PowerPoint presentations.

Joseph "flew" to Paris, where he "rented" a car and "toured" museums.

He said he also enjoyed "eating" in the restaurants, although some were expensive.

"They have a lot of good food there," Joseph said.

Dwight Harris, a McKinley Middle Magnet School seventh-grader, chose to "go" to Italy for his math class vacation.

Expenses for soccer games, theme parks and tours of ancient ruins, such as where Julius Caesar was killed, made it in Dwight's budget.

Polishing other math skills was also fun, Dwight said, adding he's expecting "a good year in school" because of what he learned.

"She made it fun. ... It didn't feel like school. It was camp; it was exciting. I liked it."

Students grew crystals, created slime, tested meat for salmonella, wrote and performed skits, and taste-tested sweet potato chips for the Department of Agriculture.

John said making friends with his fellow classmates was also a plus.

"I met a lot of cool people," John said.

Source: Advocate; Baton Rouge, La.

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