Math and Science Day to Take Place July 28 at Five Points West Library

What: Math and Science Day
When: Saturday, July 28, 2018, 1:00-5:00 p.m.
Where: Five Points West Regional Branch Library Main Auditorium
Details: Annual Math and Science Day program conducted by Elinor and Winfield Burks of Science for Kids Ministry and Kwanzaa Year Round. Theme: “What Can Movies Teach Us About Science?” focused on Hidden Figures and Black Panther.

The Annual Math and Science Day conducted by Kwanzaa Year Round, Science for Kids Ministry, and hosted free by the Five Points West Library, will be held Saturday, July 28, 2018, 1:00-5:00 p.m., in the Main Auditorium. The program this year will investigate “What Can Movies Teach Us About Science?” The theme points out science in two popular movie hits, Hidden Figures and Black Panther, which are both available for checkout at the Birmingham Public Library.

Elinor Burks, one of the event organizers, said the goal is to showcase to young people science lessons they can learn from movies. “In the movies, the real science goes over our heads. But we want to focus on what these sciences really look and feel like,” said Burks, who along with her husband Winfield hosts the Ensley Science Club for youth at the Ensley Branch Library during the school year.

Burks gave the example of a scene in Hidden Figures where a black woman mathematician played by Tariji P. Henson writes "conic periapsis" on a chalk board as she calculates equations that will precisely get a NASA astronaut back to earth.

“While still a child, she identified that a design in a church stained glass window was an isosceles triangle,” Burks said. “Or when fictional Princess Shuri of Wakanda in Black Panther is asked what her future scientific research will be, she says ‘kinetic energy and magnetic levitation.’ We should recognize these areas are real science and translate those into kids’ language.”

During the science camp, engineers of Alabama Power and special guests will show a variety of child-friendly, hands-on chemistry and physics experiments that demonstrate the sciences touched on in the movies. In one project, the watoto (Swahili for children) will construct a hologram projector.
Staff from Home Depot will lead families in building a craft they can take home. A TV weather personality from Birmingham has been invited to talk about weather science.

Parents are asked to remain with their children during the entire math/science program, not drop them off unsupervised. “Parents should do these experiments with their kids at home,” said Winfield Burks of Science for Kids. "Who needs a lab? This is fab.”