TEACHER'S CORNER: SLINKARD BRINGS EVERYDAY SCIENCE TO CLASS

Judith Slinkard has wanted to be a science teacher since she was in high school. She has used knowledge gained at Southeast Missouri State University to work in several different school districts and in the private sector.

She divided six years between the Mountain View and Cape Girardeau school systems, before moving to Bollinger County and teaching five years in the Meadow Heights School District. She left teaching for 11 years to work at Procter and Gamble as a chemical lab coordinator, but in 1988 she returned to teaching at Meadow Heights High School.

Teaching in a small school is the aspect of her job Slinkard most enjoys. Small schools allow teachers to know their students' interests better, and problems that often plague larger schools -- like drugs or discipline -- are nearly nonexistent.

"Teaching at a small school is hard work, but it's never boring," she said. "I have four different kinds of classes, which means preparations, lesson plans, tests and labs that have to be coordinated. Even so, since I'm not teaching the same thing all day long, it's easy to maintain enthusiasm for whatever subject I'm teaching."

Using examples in science classes helps students to understand the subject better. When studying the different plant and animal phylums in biology classes, Slinkard likes to bring in different plants and animals and let students taste them. One of her funniest memories happened after she found fried grasshoppers at an exotic food counter.

"We tried them in class, dipped in honey," she said. "One student took a grasshopper and ate it -- then she went running out of class. A few minutes later she came back looking pale and told me that the bug tasted just like she thought it would."

Slinkard said teaching is a serious matter because there are so many facts to pass along and more scientific knowledge is being discovered everyday. Even people who are not going to work in a science-related field need to know so much about the physical world because science is a part of everyday life. Some knowledge about science is needed to understand a doctor's report or even a news story.

"I want students to know that understanding science things shouldn't end when they leave my class," she said. "To understand these you have to know some science and you have to keep on learning more."