Family Math and Science is one of the most popular events used by LAUSD schools to celebrate student success. Parents are invited to the schools with their children in order to experience first hand what happens in the classroom.

We know that a student really owns the knowledge about a particular subject when they are able to present it back and teach someone else. Family Math and Science gives students the opportunity to be teachers by engaging their family members in a variety of hands-on mathematics and science activities that illustrate the concepts they are learning in the classroom.

The events are coordinated by administrators, teachers and students who spend weeks planning the activities. There is no one way to do a Family Math and Science event - they are held any time from evenings to Saturdays, sometimes coordinated with Back-To-School nights or Open House. Many schools hold them individually, but often they are done with the feeder schools in their district making many of the venues quite large.

At the Family Math and Science event, children encourage their parents to participate in a variety of experiments, problems and puzzles. The children are often quite surprised on the occasions when they realize they know more about a particular topic than their parents do. The children involve their family in hands-on activities which include all disciplines of science. They engage parents in mathematics that goes beyond just solving a book of problems or doing multiplication tables. Here parents get to see, and experience, problem solving in action. The Family Math and Science events also give parents the opportunity to try various pieces of technology and learn exactly how it is integrated into classroom instruction.

The atmosphere in the room is electric. The excitement, the noise, the energy all points to the fact that learning is going on and minds are being engaged. Family Math and Science creates a great environment for children and parents to learn together.

LAUSD teachers have put together a packet of resources to help you plan your own Family Math and Science event. Copies are available at all MST Centers. Try it! There is no better way to turn kids on to science and mathematics, and to engage parents in their children's education.r "Full Option Science Systems." It is a K-6 program designed to help all elementary teachers teach sc