UW-Stout collaborates with teachers on biology kits for students
Mar. 28—MENOMONIE — Elementary school students will gain hands-on biology experience this spring thanks to collaboration among UW-Stout, area schools and industry.
The project germinated from a project in which UW-Stout biology lecturer Tiffany Hoage worked with west-central Wisconsin with area teachers to design educational plant and genetics kits.
Menomonie, Colfax and Boyceville schools will be using the kits this spring semester.
Terry Staupe, a Menomonie school district library media specialist who is teaching second grade virtually this school year, said the kits will allow students to conduct experiments.
"This is something they can do and observe," Staupe said in a news release. "They are reading, writing their observations, learning about science, drawing out plants and creating a poster of the data they have collected."
The kits are designed for different grade levels with different learning objectives, Staupe said.
Kindergarteners and first-graders will observe the seeds germinating, second-graders will learn about the variables that affect plants including sunlight and partial light, third-graders will put plants at different angles to learn how they respond to gravity, fourth-graders will build a greenhouse and see its impact on plants, and fifth-graders will learn about plant biomass and energy.
Eight volunteers from Xcel Energy in Eau Claire gathered recently at the Menomonie school district administrative building to assemble 150 single-use plant kits containing soil, pots and bean seeds for home-based students. The kits, funded through the Xcel Energy Foundation, then were distributed to classrooms.
During the kit building, Pam Taylor, of Eau Claire, an Xcel Energy transmission engineer and data analyst, poured potting soil into small brown paper bags.
"I always like volunteering in the community, getting out and doing good," Taylor said in the release. "I think the plant kits will be good learning tools for students. It's always fun to see how plants grow."
Michelle Ellis, of Eau Claire, who is part of the Xcel Energy customer correspondence office, counted out bean seeds and placed them in small envelopes for the kits. "I love giving back to the kids," Ellis said. "This is something I can do to help out. I love volunteering."
Jon Gean, of Eau Claire, also from customer correspondence, said he was excited to be part of the project to help students learn. "I think it's pretty cool. I never had a chance as a kid to grow anything. Learning about agriculture is pretty interesting."
Hoage also assembled eight reusable STEM plant kits and a genetics kit for the project. The STEM plant kits contain an LED growing station and digital scale for elementary students to design and conduct experiments of interest. The genetics kit includes equipment for eight groups of students to make copies of DNA, separate the DNA based on size and visualize it.
The kit also allows students to learn hands-on about CRISPR/Cas9 technology, which is relatively new and being used in clinical trials to treat human diseases.
Hoage made how-to videos for the kits as well.
"Combining the expertise of UW-Stout faculty and staff with the expertise of K-12 teachers results in great opportunities for K-12 students," Hoage said in the release. "I enjoyed working with the teachers and thinking about what great learning opportunities these kits will provide students. Having reusable kits that can be checked out by local school districts provides opportunities that students might not otherwise have."
She noted that genetics equipment is expensive, which means school districts can save money and enable students to work in smaller groups by sharing the reusable kits.
