Science and Everyday Experiences:
Engaging Children, Families

Gwendolyn E. Boyd, national president of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., noted that "Science and Everyday Experiences," would engage 17,500 families in inquiry-based science education each year through the more than 900 Delta Sigma Theta chapters around the nation. Gaynelle Bowden, an educator, member of the AAAS Directorate for Education and Human Resources and one of many workshop presenters, led Delta Sigma Theta members through "Math Power," a series of hands-on math learning activities created to incorporate incidental, casual learning into childhood.

Gaynelle Bowden

Bowden passed out Tangrams, a game from China that challenges kids to arrange triangles, squares and parallelograms to form myriad shapes including birds, boats and human figures. Tangrams are puzzles that help develop spatial-visualization skills and introduce children to geometry.

Fay Zenigami, a teacher not affiliated with the SEE program, described the initial reaction of children who have never been exposed to Tangrams.

"Often when students are introduced to Tangrams, they are asked to put the pieces together to form a square," Zenigami said. "This is often a difficult and frustrating task because they have no background as to how the pieces fit together."

—Daniel Kane

20 June 2002

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