The GK-12 program is designed to bring science into the public school classroom. The MU GK-12 program places graduate students with a public school mentor teacher. Working together, GK-12 fellows and teachers seek to improve science learning for 4th and 5th grade students in the public school setting. As part of the program, the students learned how to design and conduct experiments on a wide variety of subjects. The MU GK-12 program is unique in that it requires the students to write a “mini-grant” in which experimental questions and methods for addressing those questions are outlined. If the mini-grant is approved the classroom receives up to $1000 from the MU GK-12 program to purchase supplies and equipment.

Working at Two Mile Prairie Elementary, Logan and his mentor teacher, Mrs. Tiffany Wallace facilitated a successful mini grant in which the students learned how to test the water quality of the school’s pond. The students used their GK-12 mini-grant money to purchase microscopes, a microscope camera, and chemical test kits. The students collected and examined macro-invertebrate bioindicator species and determined that their pond water was clean.