Contact: Maridith Geuder
(662) 325-3442
[email protected]
http://www.ur.msstate.edu/news/
New summer program to help kids see golf, science 'links'
STARKVILLE, Miss.--To introduce youngsters to physics, water conservation, turfgrass research, and numerous other scientific concepts, Mississippi State is driving some area youngsters to the golf course.
In cooperation with the United States Golf Association, the university's Center for Science, Mathematics and Technology is launching "Science on the Green." The May 29-June 9 program will involve 20 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders from Clay and Oktibbeha counties.
"Through a wide variety of activities, our three-year project seeks to show students that science is 'real,'" said physics professor and center director Sandra H. Harpole. "In addition to teaching academic concepts, we want to introduce them to a new sport and expose them to potential careers.
"Next year, we'll also add participants from Lowndes County," she said.
Harpole, an active golfer, said the USGA is providing $146,000 to fund the outreach effort, which targets students living in the area of West Point's Old Waverly Golf Club, site of the 1999 U.S. Women's Open. More than 75 students are expected to participate by the time the program ends, she added.
"The USGA Foundation has committed more than $50 million over 10 years to open golf to those who normally wouldn't have access to the game," said MacKenzie Hurd, program assistant with the foundation office in Colorado Springs, Colo.
"The size of our grant to MSU shows our interest in and commitment to 'Science on the Green,'" Hurd said. "We're excited about this unique program the university has organized."
Golf clubs and transportation will be furnished for all participants. In addition, students will receive a year-long membership to the MSU Golf Course, an 18-hole, par 72 public facility repeatedly listed as a "Place to Play" by Golf Digest magazine.
Harpole said students with little or no exposure to golf will be paired with MSU students majoring in professional golf management. Training will focus on the sport during morning hours and academics during the afternoons.
"We'll use golf to illustrate such areas as the physics of golf and the design of clubs and balls, measurements using lasers, water quality and conservation, and other topics," she explained.
To enhance and expand sports and academic aspects of the program, Harpole has scheduled field trips to Taylor Made-Adidas Golf in Pontotoc, True Temper Sports of Olive Branch and other golf-related industries and businesses.
Joining the golf course and College of Business and Industry's professional golf management academic program as "Science on the Green" participants are MSU's plant and soil sciences department, Water Resources Research Institute and colleges of Engineering and Arts and Sciences.
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