Heidi Bush

Beth Anderson Elementary serves a diverse group of students with three bilingual kindergarten classes and two ESL (English as a Second Language) kindergarten classes. The school is newly built but has limited resources for early childhood classes in the academic area of science. Bush sees this as an opportunity to implement a program called "Hands-On Life Science" for approximately 100 kindergarten students. This project will bridge gaps between various cultures with science. Students will explore the cycles and structures in nature by observing and analyzing animal and plant growth right in the classroom. Seeds will be planted and nurtured and records of plant growth will be documented in science notebooks. The structures and cycles of ant and butterfly farms, which the students will care for, will also be compared and contrasted. Learning buddies from upper grades as well as fellow kindergarten students will share their observations. Parents will also be invited to participate in "Hands-On Life Science" activities which will carry lessons from the classroom to the home. Bush resides in Arlington.