Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Page A-5
SMILE hosts 11th Annual Family Night
By
Jenna Larkin
IVN Contributing Writer
Evergreen Elementary’s gym
was full of science and mystery last
Thursday. The 11th Annual SMILE
(Science and Math Investigative
learning experiences) Family Night
was held from 6 to 7:30 p.m.
SMILE was started to help fill
an educational gap that seemed to be
occurring through-out Oregon for un-
derprivileged students. According to
SMILE’s website, in 1987 Dr. Miriam
Orzech began forming alliances with
poorer, rural Oregon school districts
to help fill that gap. In 1988, some
80 students from four middle schools
joined SMILE after-school programs
to learn about the benefits of math
and science. Today Southern Oregon
University sponsors 17 different pro-
grams around the state in different
school districts.
The family night is a hands-on
experience, allowing not only kids
but adults to gain knowledge, joy and
excitement while learning what math
and science can bring to everyday
life.
“SMILE family night is a way
to bring families and the community
together to have some fun with sci-
ence and math,” said Mr. Talty, a sci-
ence teacher at Lorna Byrne Middle
School (LBMS).
Each school had tables that pro-
vided challenges rather it be as sim-
ple as making slime or examples of
engineering challenges the students
in the program work to try and solve.
The challenges presented at each ta-
ble were meant to be a sort of grab-
bag type of activity — something that
people could do quickly, but were also
able to take home and enjoy later.
The high school provided tables
with robots and and showed visitors
how to make snow (similar to the
kind found in snow globes). They
also showed folks how to make Oo-
bleck, which those familiar with Dr.
Seuss may recognize from the book
“Bartholomew and the Oobleck.”
Oobleck acts like a liquid but when
a force is acting upon it becomes a
solid.
Lorna Byrne had an optical il-
lusion challenge and showed how to
make paper helicopters. Evergreen
had tables where you could learn how
to make ooze and work out a series of
challenges on how electricity works.
There were three challenges. The first
challenge was to get all three light
bulbs to turn on located on the circuit
board, the second was to get two of
the switches to turn on and off. The
third challenge, which involved try-
ing to get two of the bulbs to turn on
independently while using different
switches, stumped most visitors.
Other booths included the Siski-
you Field Institute which had several
different displays of native plants and
insects. They were also talking about
the native plants around the Valley and
the benefits of the plants and insects.
Firefighters had bunker gear that kids
could put on and learn what it takes to
wear all the gear while fighting a fire.
Firefighters also demonstrated how
different types of equipment work,
gave information on what to do if a
fire should occur in the house and had
a display about fire prevention.
The SMILE program would not
be possible if it weren’t for the teach-
ers who are dedicated to encouraging
students to further their education in
math and science. Between Mr. Talty
and Ms. Trammell, both science teach-
ers at LBMS, they have been running
the SMILE program at Lorna Byrne
for the past 11 years. Mrs. Creek and
Mr. Flaherdy are the teachers for the
program at Evergreen Elementary
School, while Mrs. Farmer instructs
the program at the high school.
“The purpose of the SMILE
program is to encourage kids to even-
tually major in the Science, Technol-
ogy, Engineering and Mathematics
(STEM) field when entering college,
which is desperate for people in those
fields. The kids that are involved with
the program are more likely to go on
to major in the STEM field. The pro-
gram shows them that they can go to
school and make a difference,” said
Mr. Flaherdy. “We’ve been able to
watch a few students go through the
program and go off to college. Stu-
dents are extremely likely to gradu-
ate with good grades and move on to
study math and science.”
The program starts with fourth-
graders at Evergreen and continues
to fifth grade. Once at Lorna Byrne,
the SMILE students continue with
the program as an after-school class.
Once they reach the high school, the
class is in the morning before school
starts.
Over the summer, the high
school was fortunate enough to re-
ceive a grant to purchase two differ-
ent kinds of robots, thirteen of each,
to help further the kid’s knowledge
in the math and science fields. The
first type of robots is NXT, which are
similar to connecting Legos together
and is more of a beginner type of ro-
bot. Tetrix, although a more high tech
type of Lego, are more geared to-
wards high-school students and simu-
late what real robots are like. There
are three robotics classes offered this
year at the high school, one per tri-
mester. The class offers a chance for
students to build and create a unique
robot that has to perform some sort
of task.
(Photo by Dale Sandberg, IVFD Media Dept)
2 WEEK SPECIAL
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ears
Y
5
1
in t
other students from different schools
and have to work out challenges,
similar to some found at the family
night. The challenges vary depending
on the student’s ages and grades. This
year the challenge day will be held at
Southern Oregon University during
the spring.
Although attendance was down
from past years, many who attended
last Thursday’s event were enthu-
siastic about the activities that were
available.
Landon Mann, a first-grader,
learned how to make Ooblack.
“It was fun!” said he said.
“My favorite was making the
fake snow and learning how to make
the ooze,” said Hannah Evans, a fifth-
grader.
The night concluded with a
raffle drawing, with several great
prizes awarded to many attendees
that received a raffle ticket when they
signed in upon entering.
Justin Mason (left) suits up Devyn Spivey during the SMILE event at Evergreen Elementary.
Fire fighting equipment were some of many exhibits on hand Nov.7.
A uto B ody & P Aint
alle
he V
Skylar McLanahan and Aundera
Miller, who are in the robotics class,
were able to create reindeer; two of
them were suspended in mid-air by
support wires. There was also a Santa
robot and each time the Santa cracked
his whip the reindeer would move.
“Building the robots and seeing
them move is the best part. I don’t like
the programing of the robots much,”
said Miller.
“The robots can be programed
to follow a certain line or using a light
sensor that is attached to the front of
the robot can hit a certain colored
ball,” said Alia Parker, who is also in
the class. “You can also program the
robots using other sensors, like sound
sensors. A robot can be programed
to perform a task just from a clap. I
like getting to see what I programed
the robot to do. The down side is not
seeing this one little part not attached
properly which can make the robot do
something completely different.”
Each year all the students in-
volved with SMILE from all 17 dif-
ferent programs go to a challenge
day. The students are paired with
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