University of Alberta Edmonton, Canada 4 April 1997

Windsor Park School part of the University advantage

The giant next door is friendly, helpful-and extremely knowledgeable, says school principal

By Michael Robb

How do they get the salt in the ocean? an elementary school student recently asked a University of Alberta professor.

Kids, they say, ask the darndest questions. But the children attending Windsor Park Elementary School, just two blocks west of the University, sometimes get the darndest answers, often from world authorities just down the street. At the School's recent two-week science conference, for example, the list of presenters included botanists, zoologists, anthropologists, physicists, chemists, psychologists and engineers.

The conference is only one example of impact U of A professors have on the school. In the last few months--

• Over 20 professors and experts participated in the school's science conference.
• In March and April, Dr. Tamara Bliss' Dance 431 students worked with the Grade 3 and 4 classes.
• Children visited the campus to participate in sessional lecturer Marnie Rutledge's Physical Activity for Children classes.
• Dr. Roberta McKay's Ed El 408 (Writing in the Elementary School) students worked with the Grade 4 students on writing projects.
• Ed Es 348 students were observers in all of the school's classrooms in an effort to understand better the fundamental concepts of the reading process.
• Students in the PAC 310 class worked with the Grade 3 class at the swimming pool.
• Education students completed their teaching practicums at the school.
• A psychology student conducted research in the school.
• The school's students established a chat line via e-mail with physics professor Dr. Douglas Hubs.

"Not many people know just how extensive these connections between our school and the University are," says principal Fran Yeske. "At any one time we have five or six students working in our school. We have incredibly good teachers here, so it's a win-win situation."

"Our three visits to Windsor Park were wonderful opportunities for my students to observe and participate in the writing process of the children," says McKay. "The opportunity to see the theory in practice has been extremely valuable."

The kindergarten to Grade 6 school has an outstanding reputation for academic excellence and attracts students from throughout the city. Fully 58 per cent of the students come from outside Windsor Park and many are professors' children.

When the school surveyed parents recently on what they valued about the school, a number cited the school's connections to the University. Many of those same parents nurture those connections, says Yeske. For example in 1992, Maggie Haag, biological sciences faculty service officer, organized the first Science Blitz during which every class participated in hands-on science with community volunteers-many of them professors. She also established a lunch hour science club and served as a liaison between

the University and the School for Science Week. That work earned her an Edmonton Public School Board district service award.

The connections aren't random. Every visit, every field trip, every collaboration has to be related to the curriculum, points out Yeske. "We don't do field trips just for the sake of field trips." Adds Haag, When the students were studying structures as part of the curriculum, they also visited the Faculty of Engineering's structures lab.

The fact the school sits in the shadow of the University means those field trips are done much less expensively than by schools further away. Windsor students-much like their peers in several other neighbouring schools-are able to walk to campus. And the University's professors and students can also walk to the school.

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