The Let's Move! national campaign and Howtosmile.org science education project have joined forces to get kids moving while they're learning about math and science.
Hundreds of Let’s Move! activities are getting learners out of their chairs to run, jump rope, dance, climb hills, bounce balls, and more as they explore science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). A special Let’s Move! activity search engine, created by Howtosmile.org, is now a front-and-center resource of the Let’s Move! Museums & Gardens initiative, part of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign to solve the problem of childhood obesity within a generation.
The new activity search engine will help children’s museums, science centers, public gardens, zoos, historic sites and other organizations, as well as individual educators, librarians, and parents, tap into STEM activities that also encourage learners to be physically active, by the thousands or one at a time.
Thousands of visitors at the 2012 White House Easter Egg Roll had the chance to try the Let’s Move! activities Paper Bag Kite and Helicopter Twirl. Both activities were created by UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science. Hall staff helped White House visitors make and fly their own hands-on aircraft at the “Let’s Go, Let’s Play, Let’s Move” themed event.
Mrs. Obama and Susan Hildreth, director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), launched the Let’s Move! Museums and Gardens initiative one year ago, citing museums’ and gardens’ “great collective power to reach children and their families with important health messages.” More than 17,500 museums and gardens in the United States reach an estimated total of 850 million people each year.
Let’s Move! activities in the Let’s Move! Museums and Gardens initiative cover a broad range of science subjects, and are drawn from leading science, technology, engineering and math education resources across the nation. The special activity search engine additionally lets educators and learners explore more than 3,000 STEM activities of all kinds in the full SMILE collection, which is funded by the National Science Foundation.
Howtosmile.org, based at the Lawrence Hall of Science, was created as a free-access portal where informal (and formal) educators can search engaging, inquiry-rich STEM activities for learners of all ages. The full SMILE collection can be searched by such specifics as topic, learners’ age, materials cost, time involved, language, learning styles, and many informal categories including physical activity, music, computers, gardening, literature, outdoor activity, and performing arts.