Science center’s Mathfinder van visiting area schools

The Pacific Science Center’s Mathfinder van made several stops in Spokane this week to help students crunch numbers and get excited about the science of math.

The exhibit visited Audubon Elementary School on the North Side Tuesday and Wednesday, and trips to Indian Trail, Regal and Hutton were planned this week.

The visits included a school assembly, classroom lessons and hands-on activities, as part of the center’s Science on Wheels educational outreach program. Individual schools select the programs, paid for through parent groups or school fundraisers.

Inside the library at Audubon on Tuesday, second- and fifth-grade students hovered over several of the Mathfinder exhibits, like the abacus, an ancient calculation device with beads that slide on wires or rods. Students were busy figuring out their age, grade and birth year on the contraption.

“I think it’s pretty cool,” said Araya McGhee, 11.

According to a press release from Pacific Science Center officials, the traveling science center program was started in 1974 in response to the energy crisis. Because schools couldn’t afford to travel to the science center, the science center brought exhibits to the schools.

During the 2004-05 school years, the Science on Wheels program reached more than 134,486 students, teachers and adults.

Writing rally

Between 600 and 700 local students will participate in the 23rd Annual Whitworth College Writing Rally, and registrations are still being accepted.

The event will be held Nov. 4, in the Cowles Memorial Auditorium at Whitworth College, 200 W. Hawthorne Road. The cost is $16 for each child, and covers writing materials and a T-shirt.

The writing rally helps children in preschool through sixth grade develop reading and writing skills with help from authors and teachers. Children, accompanied by a parent, can take part in one of two sessions led this year by author Janet Wong.

Wong will share her stories, followed by work in small groups where children will create and illustrate stories. Each group will be supervised by a trained educator with background in storytelling, writing, illustrating and bookbinding.

Sixth-graders also will have an opportunity to write a story in partnership with the Spokane Ballet Company and Whitworth Theatre Department. The story will be choreographed and performed next spring by dancers from the ballet company. Sixth-graders participating in the session will receive tickets to the performance.

To register, go to www.thewritingrally.org or call 777-4404 and leave your name, phone number and mailing address to have a registration packet mailed to you. Registration must be completed by Monday.\

Reading comes alive at Holmes

About 300 students from Holmes Elementary School attended a pajama party and literacy night Oct. 10 hosted by the Washington Reading Corps.

Of those, about 200 students earned a free book, donated by Page Ahead, a nonprofit children’s literacy program serving Washington state, said Beth Kowal, a member of the reading corps at Holmes.

Created in 1998 by then Gov. Gary Locke, the Washington Reading Corps provides reading and tutoring opportunities for Title I schools with high populations of low-income students. The WRC is a branch of the Corporation for National and Community Service, and is composed of Americorps and Americorps VISTA volunteers.

Students who attended the literacy event at Holmes listened to stories and participated in various activities, including a spelling toss, baseball spelling bee, and a craft station where students decorated their own notebooks for writing. As students attended each story or event, they received a stamp in a passport. A completed passport was good for a free book.

The event aimed to connect parents to their child’s learning, and promote literacy. Teachers at Holmes already send out nightly reading folders for students to read on their own, or with their families, Kowal said.

“It is all about getting parents engaged with their children around literacy,” said Principal Steve Barnes in a release written by Kowal. “If it is important to parents, it will be important to students.”