The Family Science or Math Night has become Wonderama's most popular hands-on program. This wonderful afternoon and evening event involves the whole family. Students of all ages participate with their parents, grandparents, or guardians, for a fun, hands-on learning adventure in math or science. The informal atmosphere brings on smiles, laugher, and learning, as everyone explores the activities and experiments we set up.
Wonderama provides all materials and supplies for up to 14 activities, staffed with volunteers (recruited by the school) The experiments are either from Wonderama's standard shows or activities and experiments selected by the school with the help of Wonderama staff. We carefully select age appropriate activities and always include projects students may take home, such as slime.
Unique aspects of our Family Science & Math Nights are two 35 to 45 minute afternoon student assemblies, designed to present the ideas/content/procedures of the activities/experiments. This also serves as a tremendous outreach tool to increase student excitement and attendance.
Wonderama was the first to create, design, and test the Family Science Night nine years ago. Since then, the program has spread throughout the state with unparalleled success. We have become the leaders in hands-on programs by doing research. We upgrade and modify both new and old ideas/activities on a regular basis. We routinely integrate state objectives and your requests and suggestions into the programs, through a system of evaluations. We are always seeking ways to improve the shows.
Family Science & Math Nights are extremely versatile. Every school has unique needs and we can adapt this program to meet your requirements. Schools have used the Family Science or Math Night in may ways. From fund-raises to improving MEAP test skills, schools have tried many variations. When you have a Wonderama Family Science or Math Night at your school, you are getting the best, most adaptable and most educational program anywhere.
Wonderama provides all materials and supplies, excepting paper towels, tables, access to water and sink, and volunteers. Following is a description of a typical Family Science or Math Night. For help in planning your night, you may wish to take a look at the 'hands-on keys' on that page.
The program has two parts, the afternoon assemblies and the evening hands-on program. The afternoon shows consist of two, 35 minute assemblies, with a 10 minute break between them. Students are divided into lower and upper age groups. The purpose of the assemblies is to introduce the concepts, ideas, procedures and purposes of te experiments to the students in a controlled setting. When students see the experiments they will be conducting and the projects they'll be taking home, the insist mom and dad bring them to the program. This turns out to be the best marketing tool. Attendance may more than double with these assemblies. A Wonderama staff person will arrive at the school about 45 minutes before the assembly. Access to the stage area (or wherever the assembly is going to occur) is essential. (A corner will work fine if lunch is in session)
After the assemblies, the Wonderama staff person begins to set up for the evening program. This takes at lest 90 minutes. Volunteers to staff the activity stations should arrive 45 minutes before the evening program starts. Start time and program length are determined by the school in advance. This allows time to show them activities and train them at their stations. Schools recruit volunteers from many sources, including parents, teachers, Nation Honor Society students, ROTC students, and high school science students. Volunteers work at the station until the end of the program or until their shift ends. Activities are designed so volunteers can readily understand the ideas and procedures at their station.
When families arrive, students work at the stations at their own pace until the program is over. Its' a little like Cedar Point when you walk in the gate and have all the rides in front of you. Students tend to find the activities the like, and do those first, they spend more time at the stations they find interesting. There is always enough time to work at all the stations, several of which have projects for them to take home. We recommend that the school acquire plastic merchandise bags as a donation from a local store for the students to put their projects into. It's great advertising for the store and helps keep the cost of the program down.
When the program is over, volunteers pack the materials from their station back into Wonderama's storage boxes. They may need to wipe off a couple of tables and help the custodian put them away.
Some schools have had students keep track of the activities they've completed with badges, buttons or activity cards which are punched or tagged when an experiment is completed. Many schools incorporate their own individual, creative aspects into the evening. Some ideas that have proven successful are parent/teacher experiments, student science fair projects, dinners, snack, food sales, a science week, science supply sales and book fairs.
After each program, we have the school fill out an evaluation to help us determine how well the program went and how we can improve it. Many valuable enhancements have come from these evaluations. Following are a couple of typical comment samples we have received. From the Western side of Michigan, a parent-chairperson for the program said, "We had about an 85% student turnout! Very Exciting!..."Wonderful program according to all participants, students, volunteers and parents. Thanks." A Goals 2000 Coordinator from the Northern part of Michigan said "Good mix of activity levels-good review of concepts learned. A fun night."
We have found that students, parents, and teachers talk about the projects and experiments for months. Kids love our many take home projects. When we return the next year, with new projects and experiments, many students remember the experiments and ideas from the year before. This heightened interest, excitement, and science education will enhance your students' abilities in school and on the MEAP.