About 30 children from China this summer visited Salt Lake
Community College to create electricity from wool and Styrofoam, make polymers
from glue and Borax, and cool ice cream in a bag using salt. They used
compasses to find school supplies and candy to power bottle rockets. In short,
the kids from Shanghai had a blast while visiting SLCC’s Taylorsville Redwood
Campus.
The visit is part of the Utah Chinese Center’s effort to
provide an annual cultural and teaching exchange for students and teachers from
China. The entire trip lasts about three weeks and includes other American
cities. While in the U.S., the students and teachers stay with host families.
The UCC’s goal is to expose students and teachers to
American history, culture and ethics as well as China’s major contributions to
the development of the civilized world, according to Dave Richardson, SLCC
interim dean for the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. The UCC hopes the
exchange helps to bridge real or perceived Sino-American misunderstandings.
“Even though the organization makes a microscopic indentation in this process,
any contribution to diversity is better than none,” Richardson says.
In previous years the exchange included more classroom time,
learning English, history and culture while indoors. The visits evolved into
STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) hands-on activities
that are fun and at times confounding. “Bottle rockets were challenging for
them to make, as they didn’t realize how to tear duct tape,” says Barbara
Antonetti, a fourth-grade teacher who also helps out with the college’s Slick
Science Camp, the blueprint for activities with the Chinese elementary school
students. “They loved launching them and had fun dashing around trying to find
theirs when they landed.”
