TEACHER'S CORNER: HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES HELP STUDENTS GRASP SCIENCE

JACKSON -- Seventh- and eighth-grade students in Lucille Ellis' classroom have their hands full. Ellis, who teaches math and science at Immaculate Conception Catholic School in Jackson, likes to help students learn with hands-on activities.

Many of the projects help the students grasp simple concepts that were once misunderstood.

During math lessons, the students learn how to use scientific calculators. "I use a program called `Hands-On Equations' to help the students grasp how to solve simple equations," Ellis said. During geometry units, the students use prisms, cylinders, cones and pyramids to determine the area and volume of the objects, she added.

Ellis coaches the MathCounts team at the school.

But the hands-on learning doesn't stop with math concepts. Ellis also tries to incorporate activities into her science curriculum.

Seventh-grade students dissect worms and frogs, use microscopes to examine pollen and leaf structures and learn to identify rocks and minerals.

But the highlight of the class isn't something they do in a classroom, Ellis said. "The highlights for the seventh-grade class are a field trip to the St. Louis Science Center and launching hot air balloons in the park for Play Day," she added.

Eighth-grade students also learn through interactive study. The students have dissected a cow's heart and studied the fat content of ground beef. They also have inspected the starch, sugar, protein and fat contents of other foods, and built a small battery-operated electric motor and wired a parallel circuit, she said.

Ellis has been teaching for 12 years, but only four have been at Immaculate Conception school. She also teaches seventh- and eighth-grade reading and religion.

Ellis earned her undergraduate and master's degrees from Southeast Missouri State University. She is a member of the Missouri Council of Teachers, National Science Teachers Association and Science Teachers of Missouri.

She and her husband, Ivan, have three children. Two of the children attend Immaculate Conception.