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Fourth-graders in Williamstown are learning genetics through the nationally-recognized science program BioEyes.
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Williams College neuroscience professor Martha Marvin explains concepts t the children.
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Fourth-grade teacher Sean MacDonald said it was an opportunity for the children to learn the scientific method.
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A student works in a Punnett square, a diagram for determining a breeding outcome.
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A Williamstown fourth-grader uses a microscope.
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Drawing in the BioEyes class at Williamstown Elementary.

Williams Students Teach Biology in Elementary School Classes

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
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LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — This month, fourth-graders in Lanesborough and Williamstown have traded in Four Square for Punnett squares.
 
Genetics is just one of the lessons being taught by the nationally-recognized science program BioEyes, which returned this winter to Williamstown Elementary School and made its first stop at Lanesborough Elementary.
 
The program, developed at the University of Pennsylvania, came to North Berkshire in 2010 through the efforts of Williams College neuroscience professor Martha Marvin.
 
She was back in the elementary school classrooms this week, helping her Williams students who taught the program to 9- and 10-year-olds, who studied the development of zebrafish, learning, among other things, how genetic variation produces some fish who — counter to their name — do not develop stripes.
 
"It's an opportunity for them to work with the scientific method, which I'm teaching them," Lanesborough fourth-grade teacher Sean MacDonald said. "It's a chance to develop the skills of being skeptical, questioning and logical and having the tools to find good, logical answers."
 
MacDonald also was excited to have his children given exposure to Marvin and her students from the college.
 
"It provides the kids with a short-term but meaningful relationship," he said.
 
BioEyes lasts one week and takes advantage of the college's Winter Study period to bring Marvin's students into the community.
 
At Lanesborough, one Williams student has been making daily trips throughout the month for a variety of classroom experiences. But transportation is an issue. The elementary school in Williamstown is a block from the campus; the daily trips to Lanesborough have involved coordination with the BRTA bus schedule.
Lanesborough is working with the college to see what kinds of carpools or van rides might be established to make the 16-mile trip more routine.
 
Marvin has taken the BioEyes program to Brayton and Greylock elementary schools in North Adams in the past. This was the first year she has been able to bring it to Lanesborough.
 
According to the program's website, BioEyes has reached more than 80,000 schoolchildren around the world. Given prolific reproductive capacity and short development span of a zebrafish, the weeklong program allows kids to see all stages of development; high-powered microscopes provided by Williams allow them to observe the fish in the embryonic and larval stages.
 
They take notes, make pictures of what they see under the glass and get a taste of sophisticated topics like alleles, dominant vs. recessive traits and genotypes.
 
MacDonald said BioEyes is a true interdisciplinary experience, expanding the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) idea to the newer acronym STEAM, which adds the liberal arts to the mix
 
"Science, math, reading and writing are all interconnected," he said. "Kids love science. They love the hands-on part, the fun part of science. But there's a whole other part that needs to be explored. And that's the part that's even more exciting because that's where you think about your results and make discoveries."

Tags: LES,   science,   WES,   Williams College,   

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Lanesborough Administrator Gives Update on Snow Plowing

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

LANESBOROUGH, Mass.— Five staff members plow about 50 miles of town roads during the winter.

On Monday, Town Administrator Gina Dario updated the Select Board on snow plowing.  The county began to see snow around Thanksgiving and had a significant storm last week.

"I just think it's good for transparency for people to understand sort of some of the process of how they approach plowing of roads," she said.

Fifty miles of roadway is covered by five staff members, often starting at 8 p.m. with staggered shifts until the morning.

"They always start on the main roads, including Route 7, Route 8, the Connector Road, Bull Hill Road, Balance Rock (Road,) and Narragansett (Avenue.) There is cascading, kind of— as you imagine, the arms of the town that go out there isn't a set routine. Sometimes it depends on which person is starting on which shift and where they're going to cover first," Dario explained.

"There are some ensuring that the school is appropriately covered and obviously they do Town Hall and they give Town Hall notice to make sure that we're clear to the public so that we can avoid people slipping and falling."

She added that dirt roads are harder to plow earlier in the season before they freeze 'Or sometimes they can't plow at all because that will damage the mud that is on the dirt roads at that point."

During a light snowstorm, plowers will try to get blacktop roads salted first so they can be maintained quickly.

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