MURFREESBORO — Youthful energy vibrated throughout
MTSU’s Murphy Center Thursday (Dec. 12) as more than 7,000 Murfreesboro school
children attended the Education Day women’s basketball game.
Children danced,
screamed, high-fived and even learned a thing or two about math and science
before, during and after the game, which saw the MT Lady Raiders (6-3) defeat
visiting Kennesaw (Ga.) State University, 68-32, in front of 10,028 fans —
fourth largest in program history.
The second Education
Day, a partnership between the university (athletics, women’s basketball and
academics) and Murfreesboro City Schools, was a slam dunk for young and old
alike. This year’s event also included students from Campus School, which is
owned by MTSU and operated as part of Rutherford County Schools.
When Campus
School students Emma Lakes and McKenzie Ray were asked how much fun they were
having, both responded “a lot of fun” almost simultaneously.
A group of
Bradley Academy students were selected to move from their seats to the
high-five tunnel at the northwest entrance where the Lady Raiders enter Monte
Hale Arena before the game. Not only did they high-five MTSU players and
coaches, some of them high-fived and fist-bumped the three game officials.
Earlier, Black
Fox Elementary fifth-graders Matthew Chambers and Katie Ramey pushed their
teacher, Shaunta Rischer, to victory in the “Hovercraft Bowling” science
activity.
Chambers said he
had “10 billion stars of fun. I think every single kid should be able to do
this (bowl).”
Ramey said the
science she learned from the experience came “in the way you had to move the
hovercraft and knock down the pins (two-liter bottles).”
Rischer added
that the activity was a “good introduction to get kids excited about (science)
when we get back to the classroom.”
John Pittard
Elementary sixth-graders Brayden Reed and Bennett Morton used a spinning method
to send their teacher, Herman Nelson, down the court. However, their angle was
to the right of the pins and not as direct as their competitors.
Nelson said on a
trial run at their school “the boys pushed so hard I hit the wall. It was
comforting to see people on the other side of the pins (in Murphy Center).”
Nelson added
there was plenty, educationally, to take away from the event.
“The good thing
about it is that it is high interest,” he said. “You can take the statistics
after the game and create math problems that provide teaching skills in a more
meaningful way.”
In addition to
the extremely popular smile cam and fan cam on the large screens, MT Athletic
Marketing provides numerous activities for the children during media and
regular time outs and at halftime.
University
President Sidney A. McPhee and his wife, Elizabeth, who retired in 2012 after
teaching at the Discovery School at Reeves-Rogers on Greenland Drive, watched
as the crowd size increased as did the noise level.
“This is an
example of our partnership with the city schools and our investment with the
schools,” President McPhee said. “Many of these students would not have been
able to experience our campus. This is a win-win situation.”
Several seats
down from the McPhees, City Schools’ Director Linda Gilbert smiled with excitement
as all her students, with the exception of prekindergarten and kindergarten,
and virtually the entire staff was in attendance.
“This is a great
day, a beautiful day with lots of beautiful children,” Gilbert, an MTSU
alumnus, said. “We’ll have children here who will learn things today.”
Gilbert added
that she is “extremely grateful to MTSU” in this endeavor.
The McPhees will
be honored during the City Schools Foundation seventh annual Excellence in
Education Celebration Jan. 24, 2014, at Stones River Country Club.
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