A contingent of students from Waterbury chanted a team cheer set to the tune of “Baby Got Back.”

Moments before, girls from New Britain danced during their own city’s cheer.

With over 100 spirited middle school students in one room, you might think the competition would have turned ugly, but students from both towns were tasked with working together to solve math problems as part of the DimensionM video game, which was projected onto the screen at the Connecticut Science Center’s theater.

With various adults hovering and all the stadium-style seats filled, the pressure must have been on the eight students seated on the stage, solving math problems in order to advance the game.

If anyone got booed, it was drowned out by the loud, constant cheering.

There was no doubt. The students in the Connecticut Pre-Engineering Program (CPEP) had pep. This program primarily serves underrepresented students and is tuition-free. CPEP CEO Bruce Dixon said the summer program uses video games to help accelerate student learning. All of the students have the capacity to learn, he said, but they often lack a strong background in math. To move into any of the science fields, that math foundation is required, Dixon said.

As the games wrapped up in the theater, the students were set loose to explore the science center, with most going into the Raytheon and Stanley Black & Decker-sponsored MathAlive! traveling exhibit.

Kids have no trouble expressing themselves. If they were bored, they would have said so. The only rumblings heard emerged around the boardercross activity– children were resolving, for themselves, the issue of one boy using the equipment for longer than the rest thought was fair. The sense of cooperation and independence was noticeable in this group, where most were perfectly content to help themselves, for example, assess whether or not they could use the rock climbing wall without hurrying off to find a teacher for permission.

Allison Jeannotte, the Community Relations Director for Raytheon, told the students that it was that company’s job to “help inspire” them to “love science and math.”

Judging from their interaction with the MathAlive! exhibit — which is part of Raytheon’s national MathMovesU program — the company did its job.

To demonstrate how math is used outside of textbooks, this exhibit includes sports, transportation, outer space, fashion, dancing, music, and robotics. The walls are dotted with the stories of professionals, many of whom have careers that would not be automatically equated with math. Among personalities like Neri Oxman, Dennis Hong, and Christine Otram, is  Skip Garibaldi, a mathematician and rock climber who says, “being a mathematician gives you a lot more independence than most other jobs. All it takes is your brain and maybe paper and a pencil. ”

More powerful than the highlighted professionals — who are diverse in terms of race, gender, and career — is a message from one’s own peer group. Kathryn Gray, described as a student and Supernova Searcher, is quoted as saying, “When I was 10, I heard about a 14-year-old girl who found [a supernova] and I thought, ‘HEY, I CAN DO THAT!'”

What can be simpler and more empowering than hearing that youth do not need to wait until adulthood or to earn numerous degrees before they can begin doing awesome things?

MathAlive! will be at the Connecticut Science Center through September 1, 2013 and until then, educators with ID get free admission.