By Emily Boster Published: November 18, 2014, 6:22 pm Updated: November 19, 2014, 2:36 pm
MANLY, Iowa - Who would have thought kids would be laughing and giggling while solving a math problem? That’s exactly what’s happening at Central Springs Elementary as kindergartners through fourth graders are having a blast learning about magic and solving a little math on the side.
“Math is actually hard to learn anyway, and so a lot of the kids get worried when it comes to math. If I can show them that math can be fun and funny then it might get them to open their book up a little bit more,” said Hagerman the Magician.
Hagerman the Magician is getting students riled up about math and science. For him, it’s a dream he’s beyond excited to pursue.
“For one thing, I’m passionate about magic, but I’m also passionate about teaching kids science and math. For the last 20 years, I’ve been all over the country as a science wizard or math wizard.”
Elementary principal Bill Carlson says it’s awesome to see the kids spitting out answers to math problems, and not even realizing how much they’re learning.
“This year the math program is really cool. Kids get excited about different shapes and the kids will watch the optical illusion, and they’ll look at his head get bigger, his head get smaller. Kids get so excited and their reaction it’s pretty cool for everybody,” said Carlson.
In the end, it’s obvious that there’s no optical illusion happening here when it comes to making learning fun.
“If we can bring things to school that makes education exciting and bring a little bit more zip into it, then the kids get excited about that. Hopefully it turns over to the classroom. Who knows, some day we can have some little Hagerman’s sitting here right now who might be doing this when they get older.”
This is the second year Hagerman the Magician has been at Central Springs Elementary and it seems like a tradition both staff and students would like to keep going.