The science of learning

Saturday, Nov. 25, 2000 | 8:56 a.m.

Ask any second grader at Estes McDoniel Elementary School about the echinoderms in their marine lab and they'll likely save you from doing an Internet search on the sea stars and urchins.

Stop in at Martha P. King Elementary School's Tortoise Oasis and students will explain the plight of the desert tortoise.

Fourth graders at Gordon McCaw Elementary will walk you through the history of mining in a 4,600-square-foot mock mine built behind their school.

Students at Vanderburg Elementary will eagerly share stories about the rain forest biosphere being constructed in their school's atrium.

Not bad for a city that by comparison is lacking in museums with hands-on, school-related activities. These are just four of 10 stops that make up the Southeast Area Science Consortium, a partnership between Las Vegas communities, the Clark County School District, the Clark County Public Education Foundation and parent-teacher associations at each site.

According to the consortium, Las Vegas doesn't have half the museums available to students in other cities of the same size. It reports that cities the size of Las Vegas have an average of 28 museums compared to the eight "relatively new" museums in the Las Vegas Valley.

But through field trips and a Curriculum Enrichment Guide that entwines the themed schools, access to such programs is growing in individual school projects.

"Everybody has a unique twist to it," Candace Thompson, who served as staff liaison between schools for the consortium, said. "That's the beauty of the whole program."

Taylor Elementary's 1 1/4-acre Desert Botanical Teaching Gardens features hundreds of desert plants, trees, shrubs and animal families indigenous to the area. White Middle School and Treem and Thorpe elementary schools oversee the Whitney Mesa, a lush outdoor nature preserve complete with bridges, trails and rocks.

Nate Mack Elementary is in the planning stage of a wetlands ecosystem, and Gibson Elementary is working with the medical and pharmaceutical community researching ideas to create a "Human Body Experience," which will provide a walking tour through the human circulatory or respiratory system.

Some projects were in full swing before the association was established two years ago, but "schools 5 miles from each other didn't know the other schools were working on projects," Thompson said.

One of the longest-running projects, McDoniel's marine laboratory had been operating out of a trailer on its property for more than nine years. It moved two years ago into a classroom that houses a Horn shark in a 300-gallon tank and 15 types of sea urchins in a tide pool. A cold-water tank holds pink and yellow cold-water anemones. Eels, lobsters, shrimp and coral reefs are also part of the lab.

Corals and anemone crabs enable students to learn about symbiotic relationships.

"Students are learning about every animal classification there is," Kim Adams, the school's science teacher, said. "I have kindergartners who can tell me about vertebrates and invertebrates."

Students converse freely about the sea stars, sea urchins and sea cucumbers and are quick to correct anyone who mistakenly calls a sea star a starfish. They know the animals have five sections to their body, two feet and that food is digested when their stomach pops out of their body through their mouth. And it's all hands-on, Adams said.

"I can't even find a chapter on ocean echinoderms that is appropriate for this grade level," Adams said.

School principals are quick to explain that the students are learning more than science. With many of the schools, the students have been responsible for researching and planning their school's project.

The rain forest biosphere at Vanderburg Elementary is being built from the conception of students, who worked closely with the local architectural firm, Tate and Snyder Architects, to create the design.

Students researched rain forests for nearly a year. The school actually had a "DEER" hour -- Drop Everything Else and Research -- from 1 to 2 p.m. Thursdays for six months, Carolyn Reedom, Vanderburg's principal, said.

Once complete, the self-sustaining rain forest will have a Mayan Temple replica serving as its entrance. Cameras and computers set up inside will allow students to communicate with students throughout the world. Activity will include rain, thunder, plants, animals and insects and the classroom will have an amphitheater, providing students the opportunity to learn about other biomes, Reedom said.

"Our whole survival depends on the rain forests," Reedom said. "We're teaching the children the importance of preserving them."

That same ecosystem awareness can be found in the marine lab at Estes McDoniel.

"Students are learning how everything is necessary and entwined in this world," Gerry Crisci, second grade teacher at McDoniel, said. "Some of them would have never visited an ocean. Some of them would not see all his life if they had."

June Million, spokeswoman for the National Association of Elementary School Principals, said themed schools such as these are not entirely unique. Schools throughout the country have similar programs, such as mini-farms or schools attached to zoos.

"(But) it's really very innovative and usually takes some sort of community effort," Million said.

Such is the case for the schools in the science consortium. Funding for the marine lab at McDoniel and the nearly $1 million biosphere at Vanderburg came from grants, as well as community and business donations.

Ninety-five percent of the work for Vanderburg's biosphere is being donated by local businesses, including Station Casinos, Mirage Resorts and Perini Building Co., Reedom said.

Likewise, the "Jewel of the Desert Mine" at Gordon McCaw Elementary in Henderson, a $1.5 million project, was built using the help and contributions of more than 400 businesses and individuals. The mine, complete with exhibits and artifacts, serves as a source of pride for both students and community members. Mining is a part of Nevada history curriculum. Since its dedication four years ago, more than 14,000 students have visited the mine.

The Desert Botanical teaching gardens at Taylor Elementary, which evolved from "A Day in the Desert," a book written by a first-grade class that won a national award, was started with a grant in 1995. Mojave Cactus Club donated many of its plants, and members help with the upkeep.

A school with a similar effort is Frank Lamping Elementary School, also in Henderson. The school isn't part of the Southeast Area Science Consortium, but shares the same enthusiasm among its students and will open its recently dedicated, retractable Christa McAuliffe observatory for field trips.

The small observatory, named after the teacher who died in the 1986 Challenger space shuttle accident, is used for stargazing and astronomy education and houses six 10-inch telescopes. It was made possible by a Christa McAuliffe grant and help from a local architecture firm and construction company.

It is just the beginning of the future Science and Math Technology Center that will offer lab stations, a space simulation center, a weather station computer and a greenhouse growing lab, Katheryn Grimes, science teacher at Lamping said.

The 5,000-square-foot center will be self-sufficient, using wind turbines, solar panels and recycled water.

"Enthusiasm is at such a high today," Grimes said the afternoon of the observatory dedication. "All the students are so excited about this evening."

Grimes has been working as a science teacher since the school opened more than two years ago.

"There's been an incredible amount of curiosity, questioning and thinking," she said. "Our test scores have gone up six marks (in one year of science). There's never a day when I don't have a praying mantis or something brought to me. If we don't nab kids in elementary school, they get to middle school and the interest just isn't there."

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