Students explore more than class

Dunlap kids spark interests at special day

Robots, horses, painting, crime scene investigation, scuba diving, archery and ice cream. What do they all have in common? Each was featured as a session for kindergarten through fifth grade Dunlap students at their Explore More Day May 20.

Students of Dunlap Grade School had the choice of six sessions out of 22, which took some off the school grounds to places like Weaver Ridge Golf Course and Cold Stone Creamery, but most of the sessions could be found right on the school grounds.

“It’s really an enrichment day. It’s trying to experience new things they normally wouldn’t experience at school,” Dunlap Grade School principal Jeremy Etnyre said.
“It might create an interest that they expand on outside the school. It’s not about the traditional reading, math, science and social studies. There is a lot of important learning going on.”

The 22 sessions were set up by the teachers of the grade school who could either show a talent of their own or find a community member to volunteer their talent.

“The teachers are really who make this happen with their creativity and what they do in selecting the sessions. Each year we do it, we get better in coming up with sessions that engage the kids and coming up with sessions that are new,” Etnyre said.

The most popular sessions this year were the scuba diving, which was restricted to only fifth graders, along with robotics and horseback riding, which was open to all students.

As the day went on, students were able to actively participate in each session. At the robotics session, students learning about robots, drove a 5-foot robot and put together LEGO robots.

Gordon Mills, Dunlap High School’s pre-engineering teacher and coach of the high school’s For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology Robotics
Team, expressed the importance of getting kids interested in such activities.

“A lot is exposure. The middle schools have the LEGO League, which is an introduction to LEGO Robotics in hopes they will get involved with us,” Mills said.

“We want them to do this because it is cool, because it sparks an interest of how it’s made.”

Alex Fordyce, a junior from Dunlap High School, was also at Explore More Day helping at the Robotics session.

“They love driving the big robot. Where else would they be able to drive a 5-foot robot?” he asked. “We also had them play with the LEGO robots to try to get them excited about robotics.”

The grade school’s Explore More Day is on its fourth year, coming to the school every two years.

“We planned it as a one time thing, but it was so well received by the parents and students that we planned it again,” Etnyre said.

Outside, a fenced-in area housed four horses for the horseback riding session.
Ean Cuthbert of Rocking C Day Camp and Stables in Brimfield taught the students, many who had never been around a horse.

“We’re teaching them how to be safe around horses and how to stop and turn the horse,” Cuthbert said. “A lot of these kids it’s first time, first exposure, so we’re teaching the basics of riding.”

Anne Dixon, special education teacher for third through fifth grade students, worked the horseback riding session and was impressed by Cuthbert’s teaching abilities.

“Ean is doing a great job of teaching them how to ride a horse,” She said. “He is really patient and has a bunch of fun facts.”

She also expressed why Explore More Day is important for the students.

“It helps with the future careers. They get to experience things they’ve never done before, and it shows them that learning is fun,” Dixon said.

Learning was fun for Bruna Tavares, a Dunlap Grade School fourth grader, who expressed her excitement.

“It’s very, very fun,” she said. “(I liked) painting the U.S.A. It’s really good.”