Teacher Explores New Ways To Bring Hands-On Science Fun To Local Students

Arkansas Discovery Network, funded by the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, sends Pinkston Middle School science teacher to world-renowned Teacher Institute

Mountain Home, AR (August 10, 2006) – The Secret Science Ingredient was fruit. By the time the Iron Science Teacher competition was over, Lynn Kelsh, a science teacher at Pinkston Middle School in Mountain Home School District, had witnessed some unconventional, yet effective ways to use fruit to teach science. During the competition, oranges became conductors for electricity, berries were used to tie-dye t-shirts, and a lemon cake was baked in a glass cup using electrified spoons.

The Arkansas Discovery Network, funded by the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, chose Kelsh and seven other Arkansas educators to participate in the renowned, four-week Teacher Institute at the Exploratorium museum this summer. Iron Science competitions were just one of the wild, sometimes wacky, but always-interesting experiments, competitions and lessons that Kelsh experienced during the training she received in San Francisco.

Besides being interviewed on television and quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle, the participating teachers experienced a rich mix of hands-on activities to invigorate their classroom lessons. They have come back to Arkansas with new ways to make science more involving for students, using activities and materials that cost very little – certainly a boon to any school budget. In all, Kelsh spent a total of 110 hours over the four weeks immersed in inquiry learning techniques.

Kelsh, who has taught 6^th grade science at Pinkston Middle School for 12 years, couldn’t say enough about the Teacher Institute. “The Institute was invaluable. The professors were constantly challenging me to think more, learn more, and express what I'd learned in other ways,” Kelsh said, “I had opportunities to use shop equipment to build experiments that simulated actual hands-on museum pieces, design and build equipment that I'd thought about but didn't know how to produce. I had and have free access to a wonderful library full of science and math materials. I met people from all over the world and shared ideas. I listened to experts in their field from botany to nano technology. This is an experience that is worth a summer's month away from home. It is an on-going experience that will permeate my teaching for the rest of my career.”

Teacher outreach programs such as this are just one aspect of the Arkansas Discovery Network’s mission. The first program of its kind in the nation, the Arkansas Discovery Network will tour innovative teaching exhibits among seven local member museums, making a hands-on, interactive museum experience more accessible to all the state’s 498,000 school children and their families.

About the Arkansas Discovery Network
The Arkansas Discovery Network, funded by the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, works to strengthen partner museums by sharing resources and expanding discovery learning opportunities throughout the state. Member museums include the Museum of Discovery in Little Rock, Mid-America Science Museum in Hot Springs, Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas in Pine Bluff, Texarkana Museum System in Texarkana, Arkansas Museum of Natural Resources in Smackover, Arkansas State University Museum in Jonesboro and the University of Arkansas Center for Mathematics and Science Education in Fayetteville. Visit the website at www.arkansasdiscoverynetwork.org.

About the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation
The Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, headquartered in Las Vegas, is a national philanthropic organization founded in 1954 by the late media entrepreneur for whom it is named. The Foundation is one of the 50 largest private foundations in the United States.

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