MathDance with University Prep Middle School

MathDance is a brilliant program created by CRE member Dr. CJ Chung, aiming at exposing K-12 kids to mathematics and programming. Lots of fun while doing math and programming in Scratch, giving these young kids confidence in their skills. Today (10/25/2018), it was 21 young students from University Prep Middle School in Detroit who came over to LTU for some math and programming fun.

As part of the activities, the kids need to take photos of themselves dancing the math functions, so they can program themselves dance. That took some longer time than expected, but apparently programming themselves dancing is fun for middle school kids, and a really good start for programming compared to a “traditional” programming lecture. Also, it is the first time that these young kids attend a university campus.

While some CRE members go to high schools and do substantial activities with the students, Dr. Chung’s paradigm is to bring the kids to campus. The campus visit experience that he designed might help to shape kid’s opinion of a university campus at a relatively young age, making them feel comfortable in that environment. Given the responses of these kids (as also reflected by formal assessment) it is likely that this will NOT be their last visit to a university campus.