Schools

Lab R.A.T.S. Teach Hands-On Science at Boulder Hill Elementary

The DuPage Children's Museum's program brings museum exhibits into schools, for an interactive experience. Fourth graders at Boulder Hill got to try those exhibits out this week.

Ask any teacher, and you’ll hear that it’s more effective to show kids than tell them.

That’s the philosophy behind the DuPage Children’s Museum’s Lab R.A.T.S. program, which brings the Naperville museum’s hands-on exhibits to the classroom. The acronym stands for Radical Approach to the Subject, and this week, a team of three Lab R.A.T.S. engaged the minds of fourth-graders.

According to Robert Hansen, the Lab R.A.T.S. program has been a staple of the Naperville School District for years, but this week was the first time museum staff had been invited to Boulder Hill. Teacher Maryan Osuch came up with the idea to bring the Lab R.A.T.S. to the school. 

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Hansen and his helpers, Helen Boote and Gloria Meas, brought in a full-on lesson on force and friction. They brought pulleys and wheels and gears and complex machines that allowed students to test the principles themselves. And if the delighted laughs were anything to go by, the experiment was a success.

Hansen, who has been working with Lab R.A.T.S. since 1994, said the principles on display in this and other programs available are directly off the Illinois Standards Achievement Test, and can help improve students’ scores. He said he would love to see Lab R.A.T.S. integrated into the Oswego School District’s curriculum.

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For more information on the DuPage Children’s Museum, check out their website.


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