Barstow fifth-graders explore CSM

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Click here to enlarge this photo Submitted photos Calvert County Superintendent of Schools Jack Smith joined Barstow Elementary students Dominique Johnson and Michael Mattson from Carol Corken's fifth-grade class to learn about energy and force at College Day 2016 at the College of Southern Maryland's Prince Frederick Campus. Students spent the day exploring the fields of physics, biology and computer science before receiving from CSM President Dr. Brad Gottfried a certificate of acceptance to college when they graduate from high school in 2016. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story Click here to enlarge this photo College of Southern Maryland elementary education student J.J. Jefferson coaxes Barstow Elementary fifth-grader Katie Burroughs into trying an experiment with an electrostatic generator, a hair-raising experience for some students. Burroughs' anxiety faded when she realized that she wouldn't get a shock — just those who touched her. Click here to enlarge this photo Tommy Peck and Carter Ceely, fifth-grade students from Barstow Elementary, explore physics during College Day 2016.

Four fifth-grade classes from Barstow Elementary sampled college for a day recently as part of the Better Education Together partnership between the College of Southern Maryland and Calvert County Public Schools.

College Day 2016, held at CSM's Prince Frederick Campus, was designed to introduce students to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields in ways the students will remember for a long, long time, said Calvert Supervisor of Elementary Education, Science JoAnn Roberts.

Calvert County Superintendent of Schools Jack Smith joined the fifth-graders in exploring the campus and science classrooms.

"It is wonderfully beneficial to our students to experience science in a college setting," Smith said in a press release. "If they were of the mindset to go to college one day, this reinforces it; if not, they are in a college now and it will not be foreign to them."