Roanoke Valley school teams up with Salem Red Sox for math lesson

Hands-on learning helps students learn about calculus

ROANOKE – Hands-on learning is helping students learn about calculus.

How fast is your fastball? That's what Roanoke Valley Governor's School students were trying to figure out.

"We're trying to use our calculus skills to determine the velocity of our balls when we throw them into the air," said Alysia Sanchez-Huera, a Lord Botetourt High School junior in the AP accelerated calculus class.

"It helps them to continue to be motivated to see what else could I do with this talent that I have for mathematics and science. It gets them excited because now they see it not just on paper with calculations but it being put into an application. I think that opens the world to them," said Melissa Fisher, a teacher at the Roanoke Valley Governor's School.

New this year, the Salem Red Sox got involved, with Mugsy coming out and giving prizes to students with the best fastballs.

"I think it's cool to have part of the community come in and help us learn what we're doing in math. It's a cool application type thing," said Ben Newman, a Salem High School junior.

"It allows us to use more practical knowledge than to just calculate things. It helps us understand more into every subject. We do labs like this very often which is nice to get some hands-on experience instead of just sitting in a classroom like most schools do," said Sanchez-Huera.

The students say the class is hard, but fun.

"It's helping us understand the subject better so it's helpful with that," said Sanchez-Huera.

"I especially love when they are excited about the content without even realizing it. When I hear, 'This is awesome' or 'This is cool' or seeing them smile about it," said Fisher.

 


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You can see Jenna weekday mornings at the anchor desk on WSLS 10 Today from 5-7 a.m. She also leads our monthly Solutionaries Series, where we highlight the creative thinkers and doers working to make the world a better place.