Michelle Lowe’s Excellent Classroom

By Frances Haman-Prewitt

If you love to teach science, but you’re scheduled to teach reading, you can solve the dilemma by teaching your students to read about science.

That’s what Michelle Lowe does in her second-grade class at Wallace A. Smith Elementary school. Ongoing science projects fill every available space in the room. Boiled eggs process in cups of water and vinegar; teabags steep; butter melts under a heat lamp (in contrast with the wooden block that sits next to it, unfazed); and plastic bags full of green Oobleck, otherwise known as slime, sit on the shelves. Accompanying these projects are books like Dr. Suess’ Bartholomew and the Oobleck, and Why Does Ice Melt?

The day we visited, students were dropping various sorts of items into water to see what would happen. They started with gravel, went to tissue paper, then sugar, and ended with seltzer tablets. That got a big reaction—both from the water and from the second-graders.

“It’s hard to find time for science,” Lowe says, “but I do everything I can to weave it into my reading and math instruction because the students get so much out of it. It’s hands-on and engaging for them, and they learn better that way.”

Lowe also finds that small groups, peer tutoring, and cooperative learning boost her classroom success.

For a fun trip to a truly dynamic second-grade classroom, visit Michelle Lowe’s Excellent Classroom at PEFChattanooga.org/ExcellentTeachers