Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Science specialist makes herself at home at Sewell

Sewell

Frances Vanderploeg

Teacher Ruth Spory, center, works with first graders, showin gthem how to make a twirly-bird top out of paper, which spins at high speeds as it falls to the floor. She was hired at C.T. Sewell Elementary School this year to help the students develop a stronger base in science.

Now that high school students and fifth graders are required to take science as part of their proficiency exams, C.T. Sewell Elementary School's principal has decided to give her students an edge by hiring a science specialist.

Ruth Spory, Sewell's science specialist, was hired using funds Sewell received through the empowerment program. The state program gives principals more control over how they spend education dollars and pairs them with community partners who provide financial support.

Some schools have science specialists, but it's not a position they're required to fill. Spory has been teaching for about 13 years, but this is the first she's worked as a science specialist.

Before the first day of school, Principal Carrie Larson sat down with Duncan Lee, the school's financial partner assigned through the empowerment program, to decide the best way to use their funds. They allocated one-third of the budget to go toward specialists and interventionists, Lee said in September.

Since then, Spory has made herself at home in Sewell, taking students from each grade level for 50-minute periods, when she holds science labs. The classes are in addition to 50 minutes each teacher spends working on science with their students, Larson said.

Larson said the addition has been especially helpful to the teachers, who don't always have time to put together science labs. Now, they don't have to worry as much about it, she said.

Additionally, Spory provides activities for students to do in their regular classes and a monthly calendar and take-home experiments to do with their parents.

"Science is fascinating to children and they have so many questions," Spory said. "Almost once a day I get asked something that is science-related but doesn't have anything to do with what we're working on."

During an Oct. 29 lab, first graders had a chance to form sheets of paper into tops, learning about how varied designs can make the paper react differently when dropped to the floor.

"It's kind of tough, but once you get the hang of it, it's not that tough," Ariel Strandberg, 7, said.

Other labs Spory has held include balance and motion, and electricity. Normally, Spory said, she tries to give the students only as much direction as necessary. She prefers the students work out the details for themselves.

"I like letting them explore, and letting them be scientists," she said.

Frances Vanderploeg can be reached at 990-2660 or [email protected].

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