Honeywell and NASA’s award-winning, hip-hop physics education program, FMA Live! Forces in Motion, is making its way to Northeastern U.S. middle schools this spring. Aiming to inspire students to learn and enjoy math and science in a compelling, fun and memorable way, the popular show is in high demand, having been performed before 400,000 students in all 48 contiguous U.S. states, as well as in Mexico and Canada, since its creation in 2004. The spring tour launches in Wilmington, Del., this week.
“As a technology-based company, it’s our goal to prepare the next generation of engineers, scientists and innovators, but to do that, you have to capture a student’s interest,” said Mike Bennett, president, Honeywell Hometown Solutions, the company’s global corporate citizenship initiative. “With FMA Live! Forces in Motion, students are experiencing science and technology firsthand, rather than reading about it in a textbook. This show helps students understand how science and technology apply to their everyday lives.”
FMA Live! Forces in Motion is an interactive, traveling hip-hop concert that teaches Newton’s Universal Law of Gravity and Three Laws of Motion. Named after Newton’s Second Law of Motion [Force equals Mass times Acceleration], FMA Live! uses music videos and interactive scientific demonstrations to teach and inspire students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
“Bringing FMA Live! to our school was one of my proudest moments of my teaching career,” beamed teacher Michelle Rose, after FMA Live! Forces in Motion visited her Colorado middle school in 2014. “Honeywell brought a high quality, thought-provoking production for our students to experience and reminded me why I love to teach!”
“This innovative collaboration between NASA and Honeywell has been immensely successful over the past decade,” said Donald James, NASA Associate Administrator for Education. “The combination of exciting, NASA-unique content and a dynamic stage performance is a proven formula for helping students grasp the fundamentals of physics. Together, we are inspiring the next generation of scientists, engineers and explorers.”
Over the course of 10 weeks, the show, under the direction of Honeywell Hometown Solutions, the company’s corporate citizenship initiative, will reach 30 public, private and military-connected middle schools in 10 states: Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. The program will tour the Midwest region of the United States in the fall.
