Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

LV teacher studies marshes with Jason team

A dedicated teacher with the Clark County School District, Pam Locascio is enthusiastic about science education, and she's willing to wade around in Louisiana's marshes to prove it.

Until Sunday, Locascio will be doing just that and more as part of a team of scientists, three other teachers and 12 students researching the ecosystem of Louisiana's fragile wetlands.

The teachers and students who, like Locascio, were selected to participate in the two-week research trip were chosen from among thousands of applicants. Their all-expenses-paid expedition is organized by the Jason Foundation for Education, a nonprofit math and science education group founded by Robert Ballard, the undersea explorer who discovered the Titanic.

But they are not the only teachers and students benefiting from the expedition. Parts of the Louisiana expedition are being broadcast live via satellite and the Internet to schools across the country and abroad. And about 1.7 million students, including 13,000 from Clark County, will be watching the daily broadcasts this week, organizers for the nonprofit group and the School District said.

Last week, while taking a break from the project's activities, Locascio said she hoped to turn her experiences in the field into valuable classroom lessons for her students at Kesterson Elementary School in Henderson and Tomiyasu Elementary School in Las Vegas.

"It's my strong belief you don't teach science out of a textbook," Locascio said.

Instead, Locascio said children should have the opportunity to do hands-on science experiments. In that way, teachers can spark a desire in children to learn more and do more in their lives, she said.

On Friday, however, Locascio's students will be watching her perform some experiments. But they will not be passive audience members. Because they have already learned about much of what Locascio will be doing on screen, Locascio's students will be asked to respond to questions during the broadcast.

Since the Jason Foundation started broadcasting the live segments Monday, hundreds of students in Clark County have already experienced them thanks to the school district's School-Community Partnership Program, which has brought the Jason Foundation programs to Clark County students since 1994.

On Monday, about 300 fifth-grade students from Mendoza, Sewell, and Dearing Elementary Schools gathered for the 1 p.m. broadcast in the theater of Valley High School on Burnham Avenue to watch the expedition members on three giant screens.

The elementary students watched as the students on screen collected alligators and determined the sex of the creatures.

To do that, one student had to stick her finger in the hole on an alligator's belly.

"It's a dude, I think," she told a scientist on screen as the children in the audience giggled.

The live program was sprinkled with interactive components such as multiple choice quizzes. Students in the high school theater selected an answer by voting for the one they thought was right, and then they watched as students across the country as well as Bermuda and Mexico logged their answers, too.

At varying points in the program, students were able to ask the researchers questions they had recorded using Web cameras. They asked questions about Louisiana's oyster population, the make-up of the wetlands' soil and the area's wildlife.

"What role does salinity play in determining the plants and animals of wetlands?" one student asked.

While still in Louisiana, Locascio will be experimenting with fish to determine their ages. To do so, she will remove their ear bones and count the rings inside, as if they were tree trunks. She will also be working with other members of the research team to determine the nonliving characteristics of fresh water swamps versus salt water marshes.

The whole purpose of the expedition, Locascio said, is to bring students' attention to the perilous state of Louisiana's wetlands, which scientists warn are disappearing.

"Salt water from the Gulf of Mexico is coming in and covering the land," Locascio said. "We're getting more Gulf, less land."

But another goal of the expedition is to get students excited about learning.

According to Joyce Woodhouse, the director of the school district's School-Community Partnership Program, teachers and students really do enjoy the lesson plans organized around the Jason Foundation's programs.

"There are so many things in the program, there's something that interests every kid," Woodhouse said.

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