Discovery Academy at Johnson City library opens minds to science, math

DANIEL CLIFTON • PICAYUNE EDITOR

JOHNSON CITY — The group of Johnson City Elementary School students “ooh’ed” and “ah’ed” as they watched a PBS show in which six small quad-copters moved around a small room. The craft’s moves were synchronized, not by a remote computer but by the students’ own initiative.

“OK, these aren’t the nano satellites we were talking about before,” said Johnson City Public Library librarian Maggie Goodman. “And they’re not even nano things, but you can see how this type of technology is changing and what it’s becoming.”

The students continue to watch the program, quietly, and intently (for the most part). With the exception of a few programs geared toward students their age, it almost seems surreal that they would absorb the topics from a PBS program.

And they’re doing it willingly, after school.

Welcome to Discovery Academy.

The program is a combined initiative between the public library and the Johnson City Independent School District. Goodman leads the program along with an elementary campus teacher. The idea is to bring students together twice a week after school for little more than an hour to explore areas of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). It is open to all students, though there is a registration fee.

“It’s not just to get them interested in it but also to get them excited about it and maybe consider it something they would continue to study and pursue,” Goodman said.

A $500,000 donation in 2005 (which continues to be spread out over several years) initiated the program, which opened for the first time in 2006. For Johnson City students, it means an opportunity to get an in-depth look at STEM. The program is aligned with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills standards, so it reinforces what they learn in regular class — while taking them a bit deeper in some places.

“We have two sessions a year — fall and spring,” Goodman said.

The group recently wrapped up the fall semester with a big LEGO display at the public library. And it’s not just about building something with LEGOs, they had a specific set of instructions and lessons set forth by LEGO as part of a grant that funded additional LEGOs. Part of the instruction included designing a layout such as a rainforest and building it. Within it, they also had to build a motorized device to use in the creation.

“And they had to work as a team,” Goodman said. “And that was the most challenging thing for kids this age, just sitting down and working together on something like this.”

The LEGO projects are still on display at the library, but the Discovery Academy students are at the school cafeteria Tuesdays and Thursdays after class working on the next session’s projects. The focus this year revolves around earth sciences.

During a recent Discovery Academy, after they watched a part of the PBS video, Goodman offered a refresher on the levels of atmosphere with the emphasis on ozone.

“Remember, there’s good ozone (she put her thumb up) and bad ozone (she put her thumb down),” Goodman said. She then took the students through the benefits of ozone when it’s good and ozone when it’s bad.

But it’s not all sitting and listening. After the video clip and a quick lecture, Goodman led the students through building a spectrometer — a device used to measure properties of light. She always tries to have something the students can build or work on other than listening to a lecture or reading.

With the emphasis on earth sciences, which includes meteorology, the big project this year features wind.

“They’re going to build and fly their own kites,” Goodman said. “One of the best ways to get them and keep them interested in science and math is having them build and do things with it. And flying their own kites, well, that’s going to be a lot of fun.”

And wouldn’t that make Ben Franklin smile.

Go to www.jclibrarysite.org to learn more about Discovery Academy or other library programs.

daniel@thepicayune.com