Honeywell and NASA Bring STEM Education to Middle Schools
Honeywell and NASA Bring STEM Education to Middle Schools
Honeywell and NASA will support their science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education program with the hip-hop educational experience FMA Live! Forces in Motion.
The program made its return to the West Coast this month with plans to visit six states and perform at 40 public, private and military-connected middle schools.
This week, FMA Live! Forces in Motion is rolling into Arizona for performances in Sacaton (Sacaton Middle School), Tucson (Coronado K-8 School) and Tempe (Cholla Middle School).
The show incorporates hip-hop music and dancers with student volunteers and on-stage, interactive science experiments to demonstrate how physics plays a role in everyday life.
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Since the program’s creation in 2004, the FMA Live! cast has performed before 455,000 students in more than 1,150 schools from all 48 contiguous U.S. states, as well as in Mexico and Canada.
“It is critically important to get middle school-aged students aware of and excited about STEM topics—especially physics. We’ve seen FMA Live! make the introduction easier,” said Donald James, NASA’s associate administrator for Education. “Thanks to our collaboration with Honeywell, we’re inspiring students to set their sights on future careers in the critical STEM field.”
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Each performance focuses on Newton’s Universal Law of Gravity and Three Laws of Motion. Named after Newton’s Second Law of Motion [Force equals Mass times Acceleration], FMA Live! uses music videos and interactive scientific demonstrations to teach and inspire students to pursue STEM careers.
The FMA Live! Forces in Motion experience features an online “Teachers’ Lounge” that includes National Science Standards-based teaching resources, downloadable streaming videos, music from the show, and a comprehensive educational guide with lesson plans.
This digital tool helps keep the post-show spark alive and can be incorporated into classroom learning objectives.
Using live actors, hip-hop songs, music videos, interactive scientific demonstrations and video interviews with scientists and engineers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the show teaches Newton’s Three Laws of Motion and Universal Law of Gravity.
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Honeywell and NASA created FMA Live! to inspire middle school students to explore STEM concepts and careers. The program addresses Forces and Motion learning objectives outlined by the Next Generation Science Education Standards for students in grades 5-8.
Through Honeywell Hometown Solutions, the company has a number of programs focused on inspiring students at all grade levels to embrace STEM education.
The company chose physics for FMA Live! Forces in Motion because studies have shown that the middle school years of education offer the best window of opportunity to get students interested in STEM careers.
