Parents of Clanton Elementary’s first and second grade students received an opportunity Wednesday to sit in classrooms and participate in the school’s Family Math/Science Day.

Two sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, were held for the two grades to allow parents the opportunity to choose a session to attend.

Family Math/Science Day was held to share inquiry-based, hands-on science and math activities with parents.

During the sessions, which lasted about one hour, students completed hands-on math and science projects that allowed them to use their senses to experiment with real-world applications of science and math principles.

“Inquiry-based learning takes that one step further by allowing children to use their investigative skills to answer questions about the natural world and solve problems,” said Robin Cage, assistant principal.

CES teachers and administrators completed two weeks of training for two years with the Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative to become an AMSTI school.

Tricia Tipton, a first grade teacher at CES, conducted a science experiment with her class dealing with new plants and worked with the students on their math.

“For three weeks we’ve planted something new with a different focus,” said Tipton. “Through these experiments, at the end, the students will see that not all plants grow at the same rate.”

The first week, Tipton’s class worked with Brassica, the second week with Alfalfa and this week they began their experiment with wheat.

With the wheat being in a clear straw, the students will be able to observe its growth process and see how long the roots and stems really get, opposed to it being in the soil, she said.

Each teacher prepared different activities for his or her class.

Robin Thompson, a second grade teacher at CES, worked with her students on graphs for the math session and balancing and weighing for the science portion of her class.

“Each day at the beginning of class, I give them a different graph to look at,” said Thompson. “Each day of the week the students have a different task to do with each graph.”

On Mondays, the students complete the graph and by Friday they are able to show the data in different ways.

Also, parents took home math activities to provide additional learning and practice.

Through inquiry, children learn more, retain more and develop problem-solving skills that stay with them for a lifetime, said Cage.

Goody bags were also provided for each student with coupons from local business sponsors.