During the soggy wet afternoon, the drizzling rain kept coming. My drive around the country side was on a road bordered on one side with the ocean and the other side by a green lush valley which stretched upward towards the sky. As the sun began to peak out from between the clouds, there was a small rainbow visible between the trees. The further I drove the more brilliant the rainbow became until it stretched across the valley from side to side. It was an amazing sight and I wondered just which end held the pot of gold?
Seeing the beautiful rainbow shining through the gray drizzly sky made me think about how fortunate we are to have such great educational programs supporting our students’ learning environment. The brilliant rainbow of programs includes many learning activities at the middle school level. Recently our students and parents have had the chance to enjoy some of the extended learning opportunities at Columbia Middle School. The CMS Science Fair was amazing! Students used their knowledge of the scientific process to research a topic, perform an experiment, gather data, and present the results to their teachers, parents, community members and peers. One especially interesting experiment had some of our students making what Mr. Hamilton referred to as “Elephant’s Toothpaste.” It was an amazing mix of ingredients, topped off with hydrogen peroxide to make a foaming batch of red paste. Another fascinating experiment spotlighted the “5 Second Rule.” The students completing this experiment investigated various locations that one might drop a piece of candy or potato chip and grew various bacterial cultures from those areas. It was interesting to discover the location of the most aggressive bacterial growth.
Another ray of our Columbia Middle School shining rainbow of learning activities was Math Night. Math teachers from CMS planned and recruited college students from Spring Arbor University, Adrian College and Jackson Community College to work with students and their parents on various math activities. I especially enjoyed watching Mrs. Lape play the game, “Sets” with her students and their parents. In another room two students from Spring Arbor University worked with CMS students and their parents as they built geodesic structures out of toothpicks and marshmallows. It was fascinating to watch our students as they concentrated, carefully building their structures. In another location the students had an opportunity to design and make a paper airplane with Mr. Williams, then measure the distance the plane flew.
At the same time the students were enjoying Math Night, another shining area of the Columbia Middle School rainbow offered students an opportunity to experience the Circus of the Kids! When I visited the high school gymnasium I saw various activities including students learning how to fly by hanging on to a rope, students becoming acquainted with the intricacies of being a human jump rope and flipping around on long scarf-like pieces of material hanging from the ceiling. The CMS PTO has been working to bring the Circus of the Kids to town for over a year. Their hard work and dedication has resulted in an unparalleled opportunity for our students to not only learn academically during the school day, but stretch themselves and improve their self-esteem and self-worth.
Each and every day the teachers and members of the Columbia School District family come together to provide educational activities and learning opportunities for our students to brighten our children’s day, just like the rainbow in the valley brightened my day. If you are interested in learning more about how your child could benefit from the awesome learning environment at the Columbia School District please contact me by email at pam.campbell@myeagles.org or call me at 5175926641.
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