How Do Plants Eat?

“How do plants eat?”

This question was asked by a 4 year old in Monica Edwards-Jones’s pre-K class at Woods Elementary in Chicago the other day. On the previous day, the children had planted seeds in dirt and had put other seeds (beans) in cups of water and their curiosity about plants was engaged.

Mrs. Jones made that child’s question the next day’s focus question for all the students. Making the children’s questions the focus of study is one of the things good inquiry teachers do.

The children discussed all the possibilities they could think of. “Do you think a flower could eat macaroni?” “I think a flower eats seeds.” In a ‘turn and talk’ they discussed their ideas with a partner. One child says, “I think it eats water.”

Mrs. Jones had a packet of onion seeds on hand as she posed the question “how do these seeds grow to become onions?”

“I know how I eat and you know how you eat. We take food on a fork and put it in our mouths and chew it and it goes into our tummies and we grow. But how does a plant eat?”

She brings out a bouquet of carnations and invites the children to investigate the flower for anything that would let it eat … maybe a mouth of some kind.

She tells them “when my mother gets flowers, she always says you have to cut the bottom off. I don’t know why she says that. Maybe I should ask her.”

Mrs. Jones cuts one of the carnations to a shorter size.

She holds up tiny bottles of food coloring in different colors and asks the children to choose which color to put in the water. The children choose red and watch closely as she pours each into a separate plastic cup with a carnation flower in it.

“We fed it red water. What do you think will happen?”

The children make predictions, and Mrs. Jones listens attentively to each one and concludes the lesson by saying, “So for the next couple of days, we’re going to watch the flower and see what happens? I’ll put it on the science table. There’s a journal there and you can draw what you observe. If you see something amazing happening don’t forget to tell me. If you see something weird, be sure you tell me about it. Tell your family. Tell your friend.”

“I’m going to cut another flower. What color should I put?” Green is the clear favorite. And that flower will go to the science table as well to await any changes and the children’s observations of them.

“I have to go over how we observe things.

1. Do not touch. You could knock the cup over. Sometimes we can touch things. But, not this time.

2. How do we observe things? Children respond, “You look with your eyes.”

How does a flower eat?

After the science lesson, children choose stations to work at, and those who choose the art station draw the carnations and review the words for the parts of the flower — stem, leaves, flower.

At the artists’ station

At the science station, two boys use large lenses to observe the flowers in colored water.

Doing what scientists do … observing!

“It took me a while to relinquish control,” Mrs. Jones said. “I was so used to telling the children everything, instead of letting them explore and come up with their own observations and questions. But I’m so eager to keep learning new ways of becoming a better teacher. I’ve been teaching 19 years, 10 of them here at Woods. I was surprised and happy that I was picked to have this opportunity to learn how to teach inquiry science. I couldn’t believe they would let a pre-school teacher do this program (Inquiry Science Institute). Since then I’ve been looking at videos on Vimeo and TeacherTube to get an even better idea of what this looks like in the classroom. I’m teaching differently than I did last year. And I’m looking forward to taking Advanced Inquiry this summer.”

The astronomer Carl Sagan once said, “Everybody starts out as a scientist. Every child has the scientist’s sense of wonder and awe.” Early childhood classrooms like Mrs. Jones’s are where science teaching must begin, and it must be high quality and consistent. The foundation for later work in science is laid in the primary grades. Children enter school with a wealth of scientific ideas, not all of them accurate, and with an abundance of curiosity. That combination presents a golden opportunity for teachers, and  Monica Edwards-Jones is tapping that vein.

~ Penny

Note:  Woods Elementary is slated for closing at the end of this school year.

Teachers’ Science Fair … Why Not Host One?

Several years ago sixth grade teacher Mary Clare Lynch of Durkin Park Elementary School had an idea. “What if we could bring teachers from different schools together one day after school to share our favorite inquiry science activities, so that everyone would leave with some new classroom tested activities to use with their own students? Wouldn’t that be great?” And although she tried to make it happen that year, the demands of the school year make it impossible. Teachers are very busy people.

Early this year, after valiantly battling cancer, Mary Clare passed away. She was teaching up to the week before her death. She was that dedicated.

With the support of their principal Daniel Redmond, her colleagues Cara Maloney and Jill Ryan Wirtz decided to honor Mary Clare’s memory by holding the First Annual Teachers’ Science Fair at Durkin Park. They invited teachers from other Golden Apple Inquiry Science Institute schools and the Chief of Schools for Midway Network, Luis Soria. On Wednesday, May 8, 2013, teachers from Durkin Park, Tonti, Everett and St. Bede’s gathering in the Durkin Park multi-purpose room and spent 2 hours networking, eating pizza, participating in a “warm-up” activity on polar bears and global warming using the Wheel of Inquiry, and present their most successful inquiry science activities.

Here’s what that looked like:

Cara Maloney and Jill Wirtz demonstrate how they use the Wheel of Inquiry to help students think about variables.

Humberto Rodriguez (Tonti) and Erin O’Neill (Everett) test the effects of icy water on insulated vs. non-insulated hands using Crisco to mimic polar bear fat.

Network Chief Luis Soria and Principal Daniel Redmond dive into the inquiry activity about polar bears and global warming.

That’s the background. Here’s the point.

Holding a Teachers’ Science Fair is a brilliant idea. Mary Clare was right. To get to know your colleagues from other schools, to learn from them how they are implementing inquiry in their own classrooms, to share some of your favorite inquiry activities and leave with some new ones is part of what being a professional is about, and it’s not something we teachers do often enough. We tend to become siloed in our own schools, if not our own classrooms, and much of our professional development comes from providers who aren’t in classrooms anymore rather than from ourselves. What if we took back the reins more often and created our own professional development experiences? Why should we wait for others to set the dates and times and topics? Why not be self-directed in our professional learning, and not just in terms of our own college courses and pursuit of endorsements. Why not be self-directed with colleagues, self-organizing, creating our own professional learning communities simply because we want to and will benefit from both the collegiality and the learning?

This is an idea you could implement yourself. Just grab a couple of colleagues, pick a date, and put out the word.  Think about all the wonderful activities  and strategies teachers in schools just a few blocks away have to share with you.

I know that Mary Clare Lynch would have been thrilled with the Teacher’s Science Fair. She would have given so much to that day and derived so much from sharing with her colleagues. Her colleagues Cara and Jill did it for her.

As one of the teachers wrote on the evaluation, “Great job!  Love the idea!”

Thanks, Mary Clare!

~ Penny

By the Numbers

Recently, we prepared a PowerPoint to illustrate the positive difference the Inquiry Science Institute made in the science achievement of students in our schools. The slides looked at ISATs data in 4th and 7th (the only tested) grades. It was the most consistent data we had across all of our schools. Overall, we were pleased with the results. Compared with the aggregate of all CPS schools (which includes magnet schools, Level 1 schools, and schools in more advantaged communities than those we serve), the students in ISI schools showed greater gains in science from the 2010 baseline, particularly at the 4th grade.  Schools started working with us in the spring of 2010. 2011 showed better results than 2012, but that was true citywide in science.

ISI Performance on ISATs 2011 & 2012

With the release of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) on April 9, we enter a new era. New assessments will replace the ISATs, assessments that we believe will be more in line with what the Inquiry Science Institute promotes instructionally by following the National Research Council’s Framework for K-12 Science Education upon which the NGSS is based and the NGSS itself. The new tests, if they are well constructed, should assess higher order skills than ISATs ever has, skills like the ability to frame thoughtful questions and solve complex problems.  But whatever they do, the tests will probably still come down to numbers … to winners and losers … unless they are used formatively and don’t become the sole arbiter of what schooling is all about.  There is so much more! It’s just not easily quantified.

The kinds of things tests don’t measure include whether or not a student has developed a passion for something that could lead to a productive life, the kind of passion that provides the necessary motivation and incentive to work hard, to learn at a deep level, and to commit a significant part of one’s life to engagement with whatever the focus of that passion is.  And they don’t measure the teacher to student relationships that can shape character and inspire the course a life will take. They don’t measure the creative capacity of the individual or the potential contribution that young person could make to the world. They don’t measure the intensity of engagement in the satisfying work of learning. And they don’t measure the joy a student feels in mastering something new after trying very hard, taking a risk, failing, and yet keeping at it.  All of these things seem much more significant in creating a successful life than what our testing culture seems to value most.

The Intensity of Engagement in the Work of Learning (Till Elementary)

And in the process of all this testing, we’ve created a crisis of conscience for teachers.  You remember them?  They are the professionals, the men and women (more often women) who dedicated themselves to educating children and helping them develop their talents, expand their knowledge, and find their way in the world. Let’s listen to some early childhood teachers as they describe what school has become for very young children and, as a result, what they as teachers have become party to against their own better judgment.

“NWEA (MAP) testing is done on a computer and my Kindergarten children have never seen a mouse before. For the most part they are clicking to be clicking … directions are being read to them and they are just learning, developing their skills, so I question the validity of the test because of the lack of experience of Kindergarten children with testing. I don’t think they would ever hit the back button if they realized something was wrong … they are babies … they just want to look at the pictures. They just pick anything. They are innocent; they’ll do whatever you tell them.  I just feel sorry for them. The test makers don’t know children this age. When do 5 year olds get to act like five year olds?”

“I wonder about the NWEA … who is it really for? I had one little girl who spent an hour on the test because every time she got something right the test got harder. Other kids just clicked through getting all wrong answers and were done in no time. These tests take away from good instruction because you teach to the test even though you may not intend to … fluency is about how fast you read … now I’m taking time to teach them how to read faster … it has nothing to do with comprehension.  If we really care about what children know, why are tests even timed?

“You create a climate where nothing matters but the test. If you have a climate like that what does it matter that I come to school and learn? We’re not teaching for transfer any longer … what you learn is no longer connected to life. Children sometimes are so good but fail the ISATs and have to go to summer school. Others don’t know anything but are good guessers. One of my students last year, he can’t read, but he passed his ISATs. Since they don’t look at our assessments, how do they balance that against the ISATs?  I have a student who can sit and read to me but as soon as you take out the iPad, he loses all of it.  You (the teacher) turn into someone you don’t like.”

“The testing turns us into bean counters.  We start looking at data; we stop looking at kids.  There’s danger in that. Kids are not cars.  It’s not even about individual kids anymore.  It’s about groups of kids.  There’s a danger in that.  You’re not addressing that child’s needs.  No group all needs the same things, not with such huge ranges of abilities in the classroom. If you want people actually looking at kids and what their strengths and weaknesses are, there’s a danger in how we are currently assessing. With everything we know about child development … testing at these grades (primary) is not developmentally appropriate.”

“I don’t think third graders should be tested.  It’s too much pressure at such a young age.  It’s counterintuitive to everything we know about what good practice is and everything we know about how kids learn. We need to help them develop the joy of learning before we thrust the test at them.  Why does a third grader need to have test taking skills?  They need to have reading skills. Instead, they lose 3 months of learning in K, 1, 2.  Individual tests, one on one with teacher, means the teacher is not instructing the other children, who are instead doing worksheets.  Assessment is certainly important to make instructional decisions for children.  But how can what somebody gets on an ISATs test mean more than the weekly, monthly work I do with that child?  It takes no account of where they came from, where they started.  What does it say about teachers and honoring their craft? There’s no respect for the practice of teachers and the professionalism there. We want people to be literate beings … thinkers.  Testing doesn’t get us there.”

“We are not teaching children social skills anymore.  They are not learning to use small motor skills, gross motor skills, conflict resolution, no cutting days (learning how to use scissors). Those things don’t happen any more. I’ve had to teach kids in second grade how to cut. We are stealing childhood from children.”

These teachers make excellent points and raise questions we would do well as a society to ponder.

So while, by the numbers, those looking at ISI schools’ results on the standardized tests measuring student achievement in science might expect us to be pleased and proud (which we are), we are elated every time a student of a teacher we’ve taught how to use inquiry instructional practices says, “I love science!” We are much more pleased when we are able to assist teachers to put more of the joy back into learning … and into teaching.  And we are prouder when our teachers activate and pursue the inquisitive nature of each child, because that’s how we define inquiry. It is that same spirit of inquiry, which continuously “makes new magic in this dusty world.”

The Joy of Science (Nightingale Elementary)

~ Penny

Framing a Family Science Night … Lessons from Nightingale

“Is this a solid or a liquid?” “Are boy crickets faster racers than girl crickets?” “How large a payload can you shoot into space?” “What is the maximum number of pennies that you can drop into a full cup of water without overflowing it?”

Questions that pose a challenge or spark curiosity, that require a prediction or offer an entry point for novel constructions using diverse materials are ripe candidates for Family Science Night activities. And they are fun for the whole family.

At Nightingale, the Family Science Night Planning Committee paired up an upper and a lower grade teacher to choose a science activity for the evening that would lend itself to an intriguing focus question and an engaging half hour of hands-on/minds-on collaboration between parents and children … facilitated by the teachers.

Two teachers facilitate hands-on/minds-on activities for parents and children.

Every family was given a schedule that included the names of the teachers running the activity, the room number, a hook question and the name of the actual science activity being done that session. Because the school has a large Latino population, the schedule was given in English on one side of the paper and in Spanish on the other. They ran two half-hour sessions, and once all the available seats were filled, closed the classroom doors. First come, first served.

Activities used very simple, inexpensive, and easily acquired materials: balloons, Oobleck (made of cornstarch and water), and the ever popular (with children) glow sticks.

Cleverness was the guiding principal in framing the hook question. “Is the force with you?” “How heavy is your load?” “What floats your boat?

After so many years during which science has been marginalized in favor of language arts and math, the subjects measures by the standardized tests, parents have to be re-introduced to the fun and importance of science, so that they can better support their children in learning science and participating in science related activities like science fairs. In response, many more schools are adding Family Science Night to the calendar of activities to better engage parents in their children’s education.

~ Penny

Family Science Night at Nightingale Elementary School

February 7, 2013:  Outside it was snowing and radio reports spoke about blizzard conditions on the roads. Inside some 400 children, parents, and teachers were enjoying an evening of science fair projects and science activities, culminating in a standing room only program of science demonstrations with audience participation that provoked wonder, laughter, and cheers from the audience.  ISI faculty members Golden Apple Fellows Bill Grosser and Jim Effinger worked their considerable magic with a little help from H2O, some dry ice, and cornstarch, among other materials and props.

A standing room only auditorium was soon electrified by laughing cheering parents and students.

Teresa de Jesus-Silva, 1st grade teacher at Nightingale and a member of the Science Committee that planned the program, described the inspiration for the evening. “We had our first science fair and science fair projects and wanted to exhibit them for the parents, and we thought why not have some science activities for them as well? Our principal (Meg Kouretsos) suggested we do a Family Science Night. We’d learned activities last summer at the Inquiry Science Institute and thought we would share those same activities with the parents. We’d never done a science night before, but I had organized nights devoted to literacy and math, so we had a template for the science night. Our goal for the evening was to get kids excited about learning science and to see that science is all around them.”

Emily Cozzi, 1st grade teacher, suggested that each activity be facilitated by a team of one primary  teacher and one upper elementary teacher. “We decided to do it this way so that the older students could also visit their teachers and bring their younger siblings with.” This arrangement also allowed the nine iTEAM teachers to co-facilitate an activity from the Golden Apple summer program with a colleague who hadn’t participated in it. Twelve classrooms were open, and parents and students could choose from that many activities for each of two half hour sessions.  Some activities were so popular that people had to be turned away at the door.

Upper grades teacher Joe Estela recounted, “I would have to say that Family Science Night did have an impact on the students’ perception of science. At least a dozen students approached me in the hallway the following day to tell me how much fun they had and how they really like science now because it’s a lot of fun. Colleagues were impressed at how well the whole night turned out. They were very impressed with the level of work that the students put forth in their science fair projects, the enthusiasm the kids showed for the activities and the number of families that still turned out, despite the bad weather. I feel from the conversations that I’ve had with my colleagues, that their idea of what science class used to be and what it might be in the future is changing. The idea of “Read this passage from the book, answer those questions at the end of the chapter, and then watch me do this demonstration in front of the class,” might be fading away. I know that a lot of teachers don’t like to teach science because it requires a lot of preparation and there is always the fear that the students will ask a question that they don’t know the answer to. But, I think that with the leadership of the iTeam, we can help to change that mentality here at Nightingale.”

Joe Estela is surrounded by eager students who are spending their evening doing science … simulating the formation of moon craters.

Mr. Estela also reported increased student interest in science in his classes. “I have seen a change in some of my students since science night. I have one student named Ivan who was an average student in science class prior to science night, but since then has shown an excitement in my class that wasn’t there before. He has gone from a “C” to an “A” since science night, and he even watches the Science Channel at home. He is always reporting new things that he has learned on his own time to me every day. I also have a student named Oscar who participated in my Moon crater simulation. He told me that for his birthday present, he wanted to ask his parents for a telescope so he could become an astronomer and hopefully an astronaut in the future. I have to admit that made me feel really good.”

Primary teacher and iTEAM member Maretzy Berrera observed, “students have been so excited about the whole process of science night. Every time we do science in the room, they ask can we do this next time at science night? One of our goals for the night was to spark a love for science in the students. I truly believe that we achieved this goal.”

Maretzy Berrera introduces cricket races to parents and students. The first step is to identify the gender of your cricket by using a magnifying glass.

Ms. Cozzie reported, “We were amazed to see so many kids standing on their seats with excitement for science in the auditorium! A month later my students are still talking about it. We are mixing liquids in science and they are referring back to the demonstrations in the auditorium.”

Parents had a great time making Oobleck … and are already asking about next year’s Family Science Night.

The children weighed in as well. Elias said, “Science Night was funny and great because they mixed solids and liquids and did cool things! It was funny because they mixed solids and liquids. Then they ate them and gas came out of their nose.” Isaac added, ” Science Night was awesome because we got to do science stuff, do real experiments, and see real experiments!”

Ms. de Jesus-Silva said, “I was impressed that so many fathers showed up to participate.  And at the community session, the science show that Bill Grosser and Jim Effinger of ISI put on, you could feel the excitement in the air.” Ms. Cozzie added, “I was talking to a parent who has three young boys at Nightingale. She said her husband was dreading coming but always comes to the stuff at school to support her and the boys. She said he had just as much fun as the boys and cannot wait until the next Family Science Night.”

Teresa de Jesus-Silva engages parents in an ISI activity on magnetic force.

When asked what advice she would give other teachers wanting to create a Family Science Night, Ms. de Jesus-Silva stressed the importance of teamwork. “Everyone pitched in. This is an intense program to put together. You need a good working team with everyone contributing. We had a science committee of 6, plus those teachers who are on the iTEAM. Teachers who were facilitating a science activity had to select the activity and get their own materials. In the end, 45 teachers stayed for the evening. Nightingale is a large school, so I would suggest that it’s better to open a smaller number of classrooms for activities so that you have more people in each session.”

One of the high points for the children was the science kit they got to take home to perform a surface tension experiment their teachers had learned in the ISI program. The kits contained a pipette, a penny, a magnifying glass, a notebook, a pencil and the science activity instructions. 275 kits were distributed.

Speaking of next year, Ms. de Jesus-Silva said they have already made a connection with another school that did a Family Science Night this year, and they plan to trade activities with them for next year.  Ms. Berrera continued, “One of my only concerns is how will we top this next  year when this year was so great. This year we had 185 families. I predict that next year we will see even more!”

Nightingale Elementary School is located at 5250 S Rockwell in Chicago and is a CPS neighborhood school of approximately 1400 students.

What’s Next? Why, the Next Generation Science Standards!

How do we spark creativity, curiosity, and wonder in children?

Sugata Mitra, this year’s recipient of the TED Prize, calls that the central pedagogical question philosophers of education have been debating since Plato. When was the last time that “central” question was raised at your school? Isn’t the question you are more likely to be asked “How will you raise your students’ test scores?”

The Next Generation Science Standards, scheduled for release in final form in a few weeks, stands a good chance of edging us away from the brink of the insanity that is the over-testing of our nation’s children, arguably a kind of child abuse in the extreme form it has taken in many districts, and toward a consideration of pedagogical approaches that are more likely to spark children’s creativity, curiosity, and wonder than anything we are currently doing in schools.

Consider the working definition of inquiry-based instruction that Golden Apple’s Inquiry Science Institute team follows in designing the professional development we offer teachers. It is our central pedagogical question, if you will, in a program that sees developing good questions as one of the essential skills of teaching. In shaping an inquiry lesson …

How can we facilitate the construction of knowledge by activating and pursuing the inquisitive nature of each learner?

The inquisitive nature of the student is at the heart of a successful inquiry lesson. The teacher’s role is to spark that curiosity and so totally engage it that students eagerly dive into doing science with a sense of purpose, wonder, and creativity.

This is what that looks like (note the body language):

Children in high poverty schools … in over-crowded classrooms, using the simplest of low-tech materials … can be absolutely engaged in conducting inquiry investigations with an eagerness, a sense of purpose, and the clear ability to solve problems to rival that of any research scientist. All children can do real and rigorous science (and mathematics and engineering), if their teachers know how to foster these dispositions rather dampen them by teaching to the test as so many are compelled to do right now.

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) will require a different pedagogical approach than what is currently the norm. It will be heavily inquiry-based, and it will challenge students to observe, to question, to hypothesize, to design novel solutions, and to solve complex problems.

In a webinar held soon after the release of the National Research Council’s Framework for K-12 Science Education but before the NGSS were developed, Stephen Pruitt, Vice President for Content, Research and Development for Achieve and the individual who has led the development of the Next Generation Science Standards, said, “We have to realize that things are going to have to be different. We have to recognize that the way we have historically done things is going to need to change, which is going to make some people a little uncomfortable.”

We believe that one of those changes will be the absolute requirement that all of us in education finally return to that most essential question: How do we spark creativity, curiosity and wonder in children? For, indeed, we must.

~ Penny

Inquiry Matters

As we prepare to welcome teachers from 19 Chicago elementary schools to this summer’s Golden Apple Introduction to Inquiry Science Institute at the Museum of Science and Industry, its seems like a good time to reflect on the past two years of work with our first 17 partner schools, work that began in the spring of 2010.

But before we fondly revisit  highlights from the past two years and offer a peek into some of the classrooms of the teachers who were the focus of this program, I want to address why it matters that we do this work — and why it matters that our teachers adopt a hands-on, inquiry-based approach to teaching science.

The recently published 2011 National Assessment of Education Progress at Grade 8 Science reported the following:

• Students doing hands-on projects in class more frequently score higher that students whose teachers reported students did hands-on projects less frequently.
• Students who work together on science projects weekly or daily score higher on average than students whose teachers reported that students did so monthly or never.
• Students who report doing science-related activities that are not related to schoolwork score higher.

It’s worth noting here that the NAEP science test identifies and measures four practices in addition to science content.  “These four practices – identifying science principles, using science principles, using scientific inquiry and using technological design – describe how students use their science knowledge by measuring what they are able to do with the science content.”  Respectively, the time spent on these four areas in the 2011 Assessment was 25%, 35%, 30% and 10%.

So hands-on makes a difference; inquiry makes a difference; students working together doing science makes a difference; and students who get excited enough about science to want to do science for fun outside of their school day . . . that makes a difference too!

And that’s why we do science the way we do.  So, now, how do we do science?

Vignette 1:  Byrne Elementary, Mrs. Lidia Arriaga’s Third Grade Class

Mrs. Arriaga is an experienced Nationally Board Certified teacher who, prior to ISI, hadn’t felt as strong teaching science as she did other subjects.  On one of our visits to her classroom, she shared that science had now become her students’ favorite subject and a terrific inducement for all of them to turn in their homework each day.  After all, as she told them, “Scientists are responsible people.  Responsible people turn in their homework.” She proudly reported that she was achieving 100% homework completion from her “responsible scientists.” And she happily added that she was enjoying teaching science, something she hadn’t felt as confident doing ever before.

On this particular day, Mrs. Arriaga’s third-graders  were studying the effect of water on M&Ms – as simple and inexpensive as that.  Meaningful science can be done in regular non-lab classrooms using everyday materials.  And what can children learn in an activity like this, which, by the way, absolutely delighted them?  How to observe and record their observations in science journals. How to collect and record data and identify and measure variables like time and temperature.  How to ask questions and identify and describe the properties of materials. And in a very memorable and contextualized way, they learned the meaning of concepts like dissolution and diffusion.  Reflecting on their observations and results in their journals at home, they can also design additional experiments by deciding which variables to control for.

Beyond that, and beyond the test scores, this was a classroom filled with eager, curious, excited, engaged, happy children who were taking their role as scientists very seriously indeed. Priceless!

Here’s what it looks like:

Working Together Doing Hands-On, Inquiry-Based Science Increases Student Achievement

In the coming days, we’ll publish more vignettes of special moments in our ISI classrooms. In the meantime, we want to welcome the following schools to the program: Brown, Carroll, Edwards, Fulton, Gillespie, Harte, Kohn (returning), Mayo, Mollison, Nightingale, Pershing West (returning), CICS-Prairie, Robinson, Tanner, Till, Wentworth, West Pullman, Whistler, and Woods. We look forward to working with the principals and teachers of these schools this summer and beyond.

~ Cacie