Giving back to the community, in the streams and fields.Nancy Elliott's middle-school students in Chillicothe, Missouri Chillicothe is a city in Livingston County, Missouri, United States. The population was 8,968 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Livingston CountyGR6. It is a shared belief that sliced bread originated in Chillicothe. , sit in the near-darkness to record the sunrise whistling of the Northern Bobwhite bobwhite, common name for an American henlike bird of the family Phasianidae, which also includes the pheasant and the partridge. The eastern bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus) is about 10 in. (25 cm) long. . After three more crack-of-dawn awakenings, they'll have the data they need to determine the number of Bobwhite coveys in the area and to assess the bird's dwindling dwin·dle v. dwin·dled, dwin·dling, dwin·dles v.intr. To become gradually less until little remains. v.tr. To cause to dwindle. See Synonyms at decrease. population. These preteens are all doing this in their free time, not for a grade. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Inspired by the avid environmental stewardship The integration and application of environmental values into the military mission in order to sustain readiness, improve quality of life, strengthen civil relations, and preserve valuable natural resources. of Chillicothe Middle School's award-winning science teacher, Nancy Elliott, these students are among a small army of young volunteers who spend hours monitoring streams and bird habitats as part of Elliott's Stream Team and Quail quail, common name for a variety of small game birds related to the partridge, pheasant, and more distantly to the grouse. There are three subfamilies in the quail family: the New World quails; the Old World quails and partridges; and the true pheasants and seafowls. Project. An 18-year veteran of her rural school district, Elliott has brought Chillicothe $600,000 in grant money and spearheaded a number of extracurricular community initiatives. Many other teachers have joined forces with Elliott to make the ideas a reality. It's extra work, she says, that's more than worth it if it helps students become passionate about their world. In Elliott's science classroom, you might find students donning lab coats to investigate crimes, employing real medical gear as they diagnose a local spate of food poisoning food poisoning, acute illness following the eating of foods contaminated by bacteria, bacterial toxins, natural poisons, or harmful chemical substances. It was once customary to classify all such illnesses as "ptomaine poisoning," but it was later discovered that , or putting on their engineering hats to figure out the best way to build a power plant as part of four career simulations that occur throughout the year. "If they can develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills, then they're going to be better test-takers," says Elliott. "But we also want them to become good citizens and neighbors, [to know] that they have a voice and can make a difference." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] |
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