Pumpkins are more than just jack-o-lanterns at Windham Elementary

Fifth grade teachers Maryann Littlejohn and Michelle Stanfield are perfect examples of making those subjects fun and interesting while they meet Alabama’s College and Career Readiness Standards and the Alabama Math Science and Technology Initiative (AMSTI). Both used pumpkins to create activities and exercises to enhance their instruction of math and science. Other teachers at the school did as well.

Littlejohn grouped multiple learning activities together and called it “Math Pumpkin Palooza.” The students used pumpkins to determine volume,  circumference, height, width and so much more. Littlejohn said the state’s College and Career Standards require a lot of hands-on activities and “thinking outside the box.” Intertwining theory with hands-on activities such as with the palooza gets the results she’s looking for in the classroom.

“It’s just an interesting way to mix the holiday and math,” explained Littlejohn. “The kids, from now on, will always connect the two. They’ll realize that math can be fun. It’s not always just work.”

Stanfield modeled her science activity after the real-life “World Championship Punkin Chunkin” competition. On a much smaller scale, her students built catapults to make little candy pumpkins “fly.” Stanfield said the “Punkin Chunkin” helped her bring the concepts for  STEM—a curriculum based on the idea of educating students in the four disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics together in an applied approach—to life for the students.

The website madeinalabama.com states, “Teachers are finding that students who participate in the Alabama STEM education initiative have a greater love for learning and learn and retain more of the materials.”

“The United States has developed as a global leader, in large part, through the genius and hard work of its scientists, engineers, and innovators. In a world that’s becoming increasingly complex, where success is driven not only buy what you know, but by what you can do with what you know, it’s more important than ever for our youth to be equipped with the knowledge and skills to solve tough problems, gather and evaluate evidence, and make sense of information,” according to ed.gov.