Baylor Community Learning Center Sets 1999-2000 Super Saturdays
Baylor University's Center for Community Learning and Enrichment will hold several Super Saturday classes for Central Texas elementary and middle school students on selected weekends from November through April.
The classes, designed for kids in grades 1-8, cover activities ranging from math and puppeteering to computers, DNA fingerprinting and television news gathering.
The first Super Saturday class--"Fun With Web Pages"--will be held from 8:30 a.m. to noon Nov. 20 in the Draper Academic Building computer lab (room 200) on the Baylor campus. Local educator and technology consultant Sara Mynarcik will lead fourth and fifth graders through "kid safe" web sites to gather information on space, marine life or mammals. Students will then use a web page editor to create web pages that reveal the information they have discovered and supply hyperlinks to beneficial sites. The fee for the session is $20.
Baylor lecturer and puppeteer Rick Strot will lead "This Thing Talks When My Mouth Moves" from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 11, at Hillcrest Professional Development School, 4225 Pine Ave. Strot will teach kids in grade 1-3 how to use puppets to create zany, entertaining shows. The fee for the session is $20.
The first Super Saturday class in 2000--"What Are the Chances?"--will be held from 9 a.m. to noon Jan. 15 in room 207 of the Draper Academic Building on the Baylor campus. Math faculty from Baylor's School of Education and department of math will lead sixth and seventh graders on an exploration of the mathematical world of probability where things may not be as certain as they seem. Students will participate in investigations to determine their chances of winning and the fairness of various games. The fee for the session is $20. "What Are the Chances" also will be repeated on Saturday, Feb. 5.
Also on Saturday, Jan. 15, seventh- and eighth-grade girls are invited to explore themes of the "modern" Cinderella story during "Ever After: Learning to Like Your Changing Self"
from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. in room 108 of the Draper Academic Building. Staff from the Klaras Center for Families will show girls effective ways to manage the transitions, changes and adjustments they will continue to face as they grow up. The cost for the session is $20, plus a $5 lab and materials fee.
"Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy" will be held from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 5, at the Ollie Mae Moen Discovery Center, located at 8th and Columbus in Waco. First through third graders, with the help of Baylor lecturer Rick Strot, will compare the skeletal and external features of animals with backbones using a hands-on approach. The fee for the session is $20.
Two Super Saturday classes will be held on March 18. "Math in Motion" for sixth and seventh graders will be held from 9 a.m. to noon in room 207 of the Draper Academic Building on the Baylor campus. Math faculty from the Baylor School of Education and department of math will lead students in an exploration of objects in motion, using graphing calculators and motion detectors. The fee for the session is $20. "Math in Motion" also will be repeated on Saturday, April 29.
"Exploring DNA Fingerprinting" for seventh and eighth graders will be held from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, March 18, at the CORD Roney Teaching Center, located at 324 Kelly Dr. in Waco. Led by Bonnie Rinard, a specialist in biology and environmental studies at CORD, the session is designed to help students learn techniques of gel electrophoresis and how they apply in areas, such as forensics, criminology and agriculture. The cost for the session is $20, plus a $5 lab and materials fee.
The final Super Saturday of the academic year will focus on "Learning the News Through Videoconferencing." The session for third through fifth graders will be held from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday, April 29, in room 139 of the Draper Academic Building on the Baylor campus. Led by Marion Young, a former classroom teacher, news reporter and videoconferencing trainer, students will get the "inside information" on news gathering and reporting through videoconferencing technology. The fee for this session is $20.
For more information on Super Saturdays, call the Center for Community Learning and Enrichment at (254) 710-2171.