MISSOULA – We headed over to Rattlesnake Elementary School for this Arts & Education report where students are learning science through dance.
When we stopped by a second grade science class, Lulu Delphine, an Arts Integration Educator through SPARK Arts Missoula was integrating dance and science together while teaching students about ecosystems and photosynthesis.
It may not have looked like your typical science class, however, studies have shown that this may be when kids learn and remember the most.
“We remember about 3% of what we hear, so giving them the lesson through all their senses. Yes they get to hear it when we have the discussion and yes they get to talk about it, but then they get to move it, and when you move, your brain lights up,” Delphine said.
“So if you think about it, it’s the best time to take in information when your brain is awake and alive,” she added.
Along with learning science and dance, the second grade students — through the arts being taught not only today, but every day — are learning valuable life lessons they can take with them well beyond the classroom.
“They are learning all sorts of life skills that employers want, and they are learning them through the arts,” Delphine told MTN News. “They are learning how to problem solve, how to collaborate, how to use their imagination, how to create things, and that is what we want of this generation.
“If they are only learning how to take in information and regurgitate it, they are not learning the skills that they need to create a world that we want,” she concluded.
