As program manager of the Prairie Flowers Program, Shirley Splitstoesser helps enliven science and mathematics lessons for fourth-grade through eighth-grade pupils by providing hands-on project kits to Illinois teachers. Splitstoesser holds a bachelors degree in elementary education from Mankato State College (now the University of Minnesota, Mankato), and a masters degree in library science from Purdue University.
What is your background?
Elementary education with a heavy emphasis on science. I have a lifelong love of science. I taught in Minnesota, Indiana, California and at Yankee Ridge and Wiley schools here in Urbana. I retired in 1994 and went directly into this program. Having that education background is invaluable to this job because education has its own unique needs.
What is the Prairie Flowers Program?
Our basic program involves hands-on, minds-on science activities in the different topics that middle schools traditionally teach: electricity, rocks and minerals, plants, matter. Weve expanded to math activities, since its almost impossible to teach science without teaching math. There are 35 different kit titles, and the popular ones we duplicate or triplicate, and loan to teachers for four weeks.
What are some of the kit topics?
Theres a motorized machines kit that heavily uses Legos. The kit contains instructions on how to get the gears to rotate and the little wheels to move. You put a little battery on it and program it.
But owl pellets are even hotter than Legos among the kids. Owls will chuck up as dried gray pellets the bones, fur, feathers and feet of the tiny rodents and animals theyve eaten. The kids pick these apart with tweezers and try to reconstruct the skeletons of the owls prey. Kids love it. We have to provide one per child because everybody wants their own so they can take it home and show their parents.
How do you determine the kit topics?
We have teachers come in during summer workshops and develop a kit. Sometimes we have an idea of the title [of the kit] we want to develop. Sometimes teachers suggest kits from things theyve seen or done elsewhere.
We wont develop a kit without them because theyre the ones in the field who are going to recognize what the kids are going to be interested in and learn from. We research lesson plans and ideas and write a manual. Then we put all the materials together in a kit that a teacher could use for two to four weeks. Once the teachers are trained, well deliver and pick up the kits.
Your information says you have 118 teachers in 48 towns participating. You cover a lot of schools.
Well go north of Kankakee to Peotone. Well go south to Effingham-Vandalia Highway 70 area. Well go to Decatur or Danville. Were hoping we can go through the whole state by writing enough grants.
For someone whos had a long career in education, youre still very enthusiastic.
Sometimes my husband just looks at me and says, Arent you ever going to stop? I definitely am enthusiastic. I was lucky to get into an area that I enjoyed. The schools that I taught in were happy to have somebody who enjoyed science because, quite frankly, a lot of elementary teachers arent that enthusiastic about science.
What interests do you have?
I love to read history but dont have enough time for it. I do various sewing crafts: embroidery, working with lace, appliques, things that I can give away as gifts.
My husband and I have traveled to all seven continents, including Antarctica. There are no predators on land for the penguins and there are millions of them, and you can just walk among them and they look up at you like, What are you doing here? It was wonderful! Weve been to 48 of the states, Turkey, Greece, Europe and several countries in South America.
This fall were going on a four-week cruise to Tahiti. Well end up at Machu Picchu, Peru. In the spring, were going to China to see the Great Wall and cruise down the Yangtze River. This summer we went to Rome, Florence and Venice. The bishop of Peoria was being made an archbishop, and we were among a large group that traveled with him and had an audience with the pope.