OF BEETLES AND BUGS

Does a darkling beetle prefer corn flakes or oats? From left, Bethany Burchyett, Steven Umfleet, teacher Kelly Phillips and Jodie Miller observed the preference of the bug.

Using audio headphones, these students tried to discover if the darkling beetle preferred rock music or classical music. From left are Amanda Kridelbaugh, Jessica Jones, Christy Phelps and Amber Smith.

Bugs are a big hit in Kellie Phillips' sixth-grade class where science is a hands-on affair.

Last week, students in her classroom at Alma Schrader Elementary School in Cape Girardeau gathered in groups around dirt-filled, aluminum-foil trays to experiment with 50 darkling beetles and 50 isopods, more commonly known as pill bugs.

The testing equipment, which students brought from home, included table lamps, flashlights, hair dryers, CD players, tape players, Cheerios and other assorted cereals, and even a Twinkie.

The students tested the beetles and pill bugs to see how they responded to light, heat and sound. Some students put different cereals and even a Twinkie in their tray to see which ones were liked by the bugs.

Other students "raced" beetles against isopods to see which was fastest.

Still others, covered part of their tray while shining bright light on the other half. The beetles and isopods preferred the shade.

Earphones from a tape player hugged the sides of one of the trays.

The hard-rock sounds of Motley Crue could be heard emanating from the earphones. The music was a hit with some of the students, but the bug and the beetle didn't like it.

One group of girls concluded that their beetles liked classical music. Earphones from a CD player lay atop the soil in a tray. One of the beetles burrowed beneath the earphones carrying the sounds of classical music.

Amanda Kridelbaugh enjoyed the science project. "You get to work with real, living things," she said.

"It's more hands-on than what we did last year," said fellow student Christy Phelps.

Classmate Jake Garner found science can be fun. "You get to get out of your seat and play with the bugs."

Aaron Schneider liked the bugs, but he preferred an earlier life science lesson where students grew plants in terrariums.

"So far, ours is dying," he said of his group's terrarium plants.

Students planted radish, pea and other plants in their plastic terrariums. The terrariums still lined the classroom's windowsill last week.

There is no textbook in this science class.

Students devise their own experiments and record the results in their own journals.

"They learn how to go through the scientific method," said Phillips.

"It is testing over the process of science rather than the definitions," she explained.

The entire Cape Girardeau school district has implemented this system of science this year.

The Full Option Science System or FOSS provides hands-on science for fourth, fifth and sixth graders.

In each grade, students cover different areas of life, physical and earth sciences, and scientific reasoning and technology.

The whole system comes with boxes of equipment. The animals are shipped in as needed, everything from beetles to brine shrimp.

There are terrariums and aquariums. Sixth-grade students learn about water tolerance for different plants.

They will set up freshwater aquariums and study goldfish. Later, they will hatch brine shrimp and study how water of varying salinities affects plants.

"It's wonderful," said Phillips as she watched her students eagerly work on their experiments.

Instead of talking about science, she said, these students are doing it.