xt7d251fnh6t https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7d251fnh6t/data/mets.xml University of Kentucky. Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies Kentucky University of Kentucky. Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies 2002 volumes. Call Number: LD2762.9 .K38c. Accession Number: 2018ua049 journals LD2762.9 .K38c English Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies  Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection University of Kentucky Odyssey Magazine Research -- Kentucky -- Periodicals Education -- Research -- Periodicals Research -- Kentucky Odyssey: The Magazine of University of Kentucky Research and Graduate Studies, Fall 2002 text images Odyssey: The Magazine of University of Kentucky Research and Graduate Studies, Fall 2002 2002 2002 2026 true xt7d251fnh6t section xt7d251fnh6t 'dyssey

UK Scientists Attack
Infeaious Diseases "Kt‘ximmn 0F KEXTt’Cm

 

      
   
 
 
    
   
   
 
  
  
 
   
   
   
   
  
   
    
  
 
   
  
   
   
    
   
   
  
 
 
   
     
   

Lee T Todd Jr., President
Jim Boling Acting Vice President for Research

Joseph L Fink lll, Associate Vice President for Research
Delwood C. Collins, Associate Vice President

for Research'Medical Center

Agriculture
M, Scott Smith, Dean

Allied Health
Thomas C. Robinson, Dean

Architecture
David Mohney, Dean

Arts and Sciences

Hmwmmhlomn University of Kentucky Research
Businessand Economics Fall 2 0 0 2

Richard W Furst. Dean
Communications

and information Studies
J, David Johnson, Dean
Dentistry

Leon A. Assael, Dean
Education

James Cibulka, Dean
Engineering

Thomas W. tester Dean

Fine Arts
Robert Shay Dean

Human Environmentai Sciences cover Sto ry

ti. Scott Smith, Acting Dean
Law

itantttestat Dean Countering Bioterror:
Mediate UK scientists attack infectious diseases

Emen A. \‘tilsont Dean
Researchers at UK are testing a new smallpox vac-
cine for the military, making fundamental discover-
ies about the bacteria that cause plague, and
findng better ways to protect animals, fruits and

   
 

Nursing
Carolin A \\iiiiams. Dean

Pharmacy
Kenneth B. Roberts. Dean

Social Work
Kat Hoffman, Dean

Odyssey vegetables from microbes. 12
Director

Deborah ii‘eis

Sitters Features

fizzfigfggggge, Regenerating Hope: Spinal Cord Research at UK

ma P‘ 0'9ng A team of researchers and clinicians in a wide range

Efigmhea, of disciplines is studying every aspect of spinal cord injury,
phmomphe, work that one day may revolutionize the way physicians

Lee P Thomas Photograph»: treat these injuries. 2

Printer
Gateway Press

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and coxers the latest research adiances‘
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John Jacob Niles Has a New Kentucky Home

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Research Outreach
Using Literature to Teach Math and Science

What‘s the connection between children's literature
and math and science? Two UK education professors
explain this pedagogical alliance. 9

BookEnd

It's Good to Be King

He didn‘t set out to link the behavior of male primates
with the behavior of world leaders, but years of re-
search led this emeritus psychiatry professor to that
unmistakable conclusion. 28

 

   

magine scattering a bunch of computer parts on a table.
leaving the room for a while. and the parts magically
assembling themselves into a functional computer On the
much more sophisticated level of neuron growth in a fetus.
this is roughly how the nervous system develops,
During fetal development, the nervous system generates
several billion neurons. and these neurons make trillions of
connections. Within the spinal cord—the largest nerve in the
nervous system—millions and millions of individual cellular
wires form little bundles. Operating independently and following
what neurologists call guidance proteins. each bundle makes
specific connections to different regions and cell populations in the
brain.
The spinal cord is the physiological equivalent of a smart cable
connecting the body to the brain—your CPU. All the sensory informa»
tion your body gathers travels to your brain through this cable, and all
the information your brain translates travels back through the spinal
cord, which assigns this information to specific muscles. it‘s an
ingeniously complex system that allows us to stand. move. turn.
and bend.
Most of us take these actions for granted—but not the ap-
proximately 11,000 people in the United States who suffer
from spinal cord damage each year as a result of accident or
disease. If the neurons in the spinal cord don‘t fire properly.
the brain gets less information to translate. and in the case of
severe injury. no information at all: so it cant relay instruc-
tions to the muscles, The location of the injury is important.

\\R|lll\ By

Debra J (iihson

egenerating

ope: Spinal Cord Research
at UK

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
   

 

 

  

 

 

too: the higher it is on the vertebral
column—the closer it is to the brain—
the more it limits what a person can do
and feel.

Just a decade ago scientists believed
thatlittle could be doneto helpaperson
with a spinal cord injury. They thought
thatonce damaged, neurons could not
be repaired. This view changed in
1990 when a high dose of intravenous
methylprednisolone, administered
within eight hours after injury, was
shown to improve motor function.
Methylprednisolone, a synthetic
steroid which has been used for the
last half-century primarily as an anti-
inflammatory agent, is the only drug
currently approved to treat spinal cord
injury.

Today, the University of Kentucky is
well on its way to becoming a leader in
spinal cord research. The Spinal Cord
and Brain Injury Research Center
(SCOBIRC) was established here in 1999
to encourage multidisciplinary re-
search, and last July nationally known
researcher Ed Hall, who is credited
with developing high-dose methylpred-
nisolone therapy, was named to head
the center. He joins 20 faculty mem-
bers and a team of research assistants
and clinicians from a variety of disci-
plineswho arestudying every aspectof
spinal cord injury, work that one day
may revolutionize the way physicians
treat these injuries.

Limiting the Damage

James Geddes, an associate professor
in the Department of Anatomy and
Neurobiology at UK, focuses his re-
search on the crucialhours followinga
spinal cord injury. “We can’t prevent

the initial damage which occurs milli—
seconds to seconds after the incident,
long before emergency personnel ar-
rive, but we can try to limit the damage
in the hours that follow,” Geddes says.

Secondary events to the injury are
responsible for much of the damage to
neurons, he says. One such event is
calcium overload, which results in the
activation of calpain, an enzyme that is
triggered by elevated levels of calcium
and then begins chewing up cellular
proteins. However, because a certain
level of calpain is important to normal
cell function, Geddes doesn’t want to
block it completely.

“Currently, we don’t have good
calpain inhibitors that can walk this
fine line," he says. “And the ones we
have must be injected directly into the
tissue and are only active for about two
hours, so you have to keep re-injecting
them.”

Geddes is in the early stages of devel-
oping an improved inhibitor that will
be 10 times more potent than current
inhibitors and possibly be given in pill
form, making it easier for emergency
personnel to administer. He is using
synthetic calpain inhibitors as well as
gene therapy to control the level of
calpain in the spinal cord. A combina—
tion of calpain inhibitors with other
therapeutic approaches, including an-
tioxidant treatments and anti—inflam—
matory interventions, could effectively
limit the secondary damage following
injury.

Geddes predicts that combined
therapies targeting specific mecha-
nisms will offer greater neuroprotection
and functional improvement than the
currently approved treatment, the use

 

Edward D. Hall, LK’s new director

of the Spinal Cord and Brain Injury
Research Center lSCoBlRC), discoy-
ered that highvdose methylpred
nisolone was effectiy e in the
treatment of acute spinal cord in
jury, and today it is the only drug
approy ed for the treatment of this
injury. LK established SCoBlRC in
1999 to promote studies that
might ultimately lead to a func
tional repair of the injured spinal
cord and brain. The center is
funded in part by the Kentucky
Spinal Cord and Head injury
Research Trust 060 llRT), which
recei\ es $12.50 from each speed?
ing ticket fine to help pay for
spinal cord and head injury
research. ”Kentucky has made

a real commitment in this area
through KSCHIRT," Hall says.
“Because of the excellent faculty
already in place and the commit;
ment ofthe uniy ersity and the
state of Kentucky, Lk is the best
place imaginable to pursue
research aimed at spinal cord

and brain injury ”

 

  

"We can’t pre\ ent the initial damage which occurs milliseconds to seconds after the incident, but we can

try to limit the damage in the hours that follow”

~James Geddes

 

of the synthetic steroid methylprednisolone. “But this drug,"
he says, “doesn’t target calpain. There are drugs available that
do inhibit calpain, but they aren’t specific for it. And unfortu-
nately, high concentrations of these drugs are required for
them to work."

Reestablishing Lost Function

George Smith, an associate professor in the UK Department of
Physiology, is interested in the chronic phase of a spinal cord
injury—a few weeks later when the person’s condition has
somewhat stabilized. He hopes that his research will lead to
ways to help people reestablish lost function.

“During the acute phase of the injury—a few hours to
weeks—the neurons die a slow, progressive death,” Smith
says. “My lab studies the later stage of injury, after all the cells
have died and the injury has reached a steady state. We want

to go in and try to induce the axons to re—grow and reconnect,
to try to get the wound to heal appropriately." Axons are nerve
fibers that, like wires, extend long distances to connect one
nerve cell to another.

Smith says there are several potential reasons why axons fail
to regenerate. One mechanism is as old as the body itself—the
overproduction of inhibitory molecules that are important to
the healthy segregation of axons during fetal development
and that stop axons from growing in the adult.

He explains thatsome ofthese molecules that are produced
during development may be reactivated after a traumatic
injury. “For instance, scientists know that meningeal cells,
non-neuronal cells that cover the brain and spinal cord,
actually migrate and infiltrate the wound after an injury to form
scar tissue. But these and other non-neuronal cells also express
some of the inhibitory molecules that may restrict axon growth.”

 Smith’s research is focused on re-
ducing this inhibition. “We’re trying to
neutralize the inhibitory molecules
produced bythese cells orpreventtheir
migration into the wound cavity. We’re
also trying to find molecules that bind
to the inhibitory molecules and inacti-
vate them or make them switch sides,
from an inhibitory molecule to a
growth-supportive molecule," he says.

Smith is also involved in transplant
targeting. His goal is to understand the
mechanisms that lead to axon guid-
ance and develop a therapeutic inter—
vention to entice severed axons to
re-grow to precise locations. To do this,
he uses recombinant adenoviruses, rep-
lication-defective viruses used as a ve-
hicle to transfer genetic material into
nerve and glial cells (non-neuronal
cells in the brain). Using this method,
he can create a pathway to direct the
growth of axons, and he has already
had some noted success in this aspect
of his work.

“We establish pathways,” he says. “If
the axons follow the pathway, they

George Smith, an associate pro-
fessor in the LK Department of
Physiology, is interested in the
chronic phase of a spinal cord
injury—a few weeks later when
the person’s condition has
somewhat stabilized.
He hopes that his
research will lead

to ways to help people

reestablish lost function.

  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
  

turn and grow toward the target. When
we use certain molecules and set up a
certain expression pathway, we can
get axons to grow across one hemi-
sphere of the rat brain. When they get
to the other side of the brain, 50 per—
cent turn and go into the striatum."
The striatum is a part of the brain
associated with Parkinson’s dis—
ease.

“We’re now developing astrat-
egy to get all of them to turn.
This is something nobody has
done. No one has been able to
get axons to grow along a spe-
cific pathway and make a dis-
crete pathway decision (to
turn into the striatum) in the
adult human brain."

Smith is also developing mi-
crofilaments, which are thin-
ner than a human hair and
that can be used to provide
a growth-supportive con-
duit that extends
across a lesion gap.
In collaboration

 

  

Cervical Nerves
Head, Neck
Diaphragm
Deltoids, Biceps
Wrist Extenders
Triceps

Hand

Thoracic Nerves
Chest Muscles

Abdominal Muscles

Lumbar Nerves

Leg Muscles

Sacral Nerves
Bowel, Bladder

Sexual function

 

 

with colleagues at UT. Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, he has
developed a technology for fabricating FDA-approved polymers that dis—
solve over time and, as they dissolve, slowly release drugs. This tissue-
engineering technology has broad applications, including wound healing
within the spinal cord, as well as in other tissues.

“Here you have a very complicated system that is broken," Smith says.
“Well, We always liked the challenge of fixing broken things, and regenera-
tion is a very intriguing challenge.”

Improving the Quality of Life

While Smith is focused on long—term strategies to rebuild function, James
Abbas, formerly in UK’s Center for Biomedical Engineering and the Depart-
ment of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and now at Arizona State
University, is using current technology to help improve the quality of life for
those with a spinal cord injury.

With his research team at UK, he was involved in a preclinical trial using a
neuromuscular stimulation device about the size of a pager that can help
people with spinal cord injuries stand. Nationwide, 12 people have the im-
planted device, which was developed at Case Western Reserve University and
the Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Here’s how this device works: It is surgically implanted in the person’s
abdomen, and eight electrodes from the device are attached to muscles in
the upper legs and lower back. When the person wants to stand, he or she
activates the device with an external trigger. It sends an electrical signal via
radio frequencies to the stimulator, which causes the muscles to contract
and allows the person to stand.

Abbas is quick to point out how important this seemingly simple move-
ment is. “One of the biggest potential complications for people with a spinal
cord injury is pressure sores," he says. “Some people don‘t have a lot of
padding between the bone and the skin. When someone is sitting, pressure
between the bone and the seat can cause a sore to develop under the skin.
This can happen very quickly, in a matter of minutes. If these sores get bad
enough, the person can end up in a hospital for months while the sore
heals.“

Being able to stand could greatly reduce this problem. It could also
enable those with a spinal cord injury to transfer from a wheelchair without
help, improve their muscle tone, and give them the ability to reach for items.
In short, it increases their independence, often boosting self-esteem as well.

And this is merely a starting point as far as the potential capabilities of this
system. “For the past several years, we’ve been focusing on how we can
make the system more functional, trying to come up with ways that will
allow people to use their hands more and stand longer,” Abbas says.

But even such a basic system is an exciting advance for many, including

 

 

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 'Es

_
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
—

Alexander “Sasha" Rabchevsky, an as-
sistant professor in the Department of
Physiology at UK and one of only two
people in Kentucky with the implanted
device.

“I had a motorcycle accident in the
summer of 1985 when l was 19,”
Rabchevsky says. “Ironically, itwasjust
aweek before my football camp started.
[He was a stand-out high school foot-
ball player] There’s no doubt that my

spinal cord injury from thatwreck drove
me into the field of neuroscience. Be-
fore the accident, I was a pre-med stu»
dent in college, but with a 2.2 GPA,“ he
laughs. “Afterthe accident, armed with
a sharpened interest, I brought this up
in one semester to a 3.0—even after
missing an entire academic year for
rehabilitation."

Rabchevsky had the operation last
January, and he says that an important

factor in deciding to have the surgery
was because one of the surgeons who
would operate on him, Deborah Blades,
was a colleague and personal friend.
Aftercomingto UKin 1993,5heworked
with Rabchevsky (and Stephen Scheff,
a professor in the Department of
Anatomy and Neurobiology) on sev—
eral research projects.

“l really enjoyed collaborating with
Sasha and Stephen,” Blades says, “but
my interest was always in making the
leap from the laboratory to clinical
applications. I had worked extensively
on functional-electrical stimulation
during my residency at my alma mater,
Case Western, so that’s how it all came
together with Sasha.”

Blades says that Rabchevsky’s op-
eration, which was done at Case West-
ern, took a lot less time—12
hours—than she and the medical staff
in attendance had thought it would.
The procedure involved making 13 in—
cisions at eight different points in the
body and attaching electrodes to vari-
ous muscle groups from the device
itself, which was implanted in the ab-
domen. “Thingsjust moved sosmoothly
that day," she says, “itwas great. And all
the way through, Sasha’s been an out-
standing patient—the best!"

Since his operation, Rabchevsky has
not only been able to stand for longer
and longer periods of time, but has also
been able to take his first steps since
the accident 17 years ago. He says that
the greatest motivating factor in decid—
ing to have the implant was so that he
could stand up and kiss his wife, which
he says was a “fine moment."

 

  

Combining Therapies

Rabchevsky undergoes therapy each day and works out to
maintain his athletic physique, but he spends most of his time
in the lab, attacking the problems of spinal cord injury under
a microscope. Most of Rabchevsky’s research involves combi‘
national therapies, meaning that he is looking for ways to use
the innate mechanisms of the body along with various drugs
to enhance healing processes in the spinal cord. The ultimate
goal is functional recovery after injury.

Recently, the compound he has been working with is basic
fibroblast growth factor, or bFGF. He is attempting to use
this drug in combination with standard methylpredniso—
lone treatment in order to prevent the spread of the initial
damage throughout the spinal cord. “What we’re trying to do,
using rats as a model, is use a drug that has been shown to be
beneficial for cell survival and growth—bFGF—and combine
itwith what is now being used clinically, methylprednisolone.
Our hope is that the two will work synergistically to further
improve recovery,“ Rabchevsky says.

“Interestingly, rats with a spinal cord injury can gradually
walk over time—not completely normally, but they can
walk—whereas a human with a similar type of injury can't,"
he says. “We are trying to tap into whatever mechanisms

rats have that allow them to do that. If we can figure out what
the mechanisms are, perhaps we can apply it to human
beings."

Autonomic dysreflexia (abnormal autonomic reflexes) af-
ter a spine injury is also a major focus for Rabchevsky. With
this condition, there is no descending influence from the
brain, and the autonomic nervous system goes haywire: the
system below the injury is ready to go, but there’s no com-
mand.

“When normal bodily reflexes go unchecked, any painful
sensation to the body below the level of injury—even some-
thing as minor as an ingrown toenail—can lead to elevated
blood pressure, a lowered heart rate and a serious state of
anxiety. The brain can‘t send any messages down the spinal
cord to settle the unconscious nervous system," he explains.

Rabchevsky cites the example of a professional football
player named Derrick Thomas, who was paralyzed from a car
accident. Two weeks after the accident, during his recovery,
he was being transferred from his bed to a chair. He had an
autonomic dysreflexia episode, had a heart attack, and died.

“This was a healthy 33—year-old, six—time Pro Bowl athlete in
the NFL," he says. “Nobody really knows why this occurs, or
why it occurs only in people with high thoracic spinal cord
levels of injury but not lower levels. So I am studying the
possible mechanisms and nerve pathways that may contrib—
ute to this life—threatening condition.”

Rabchevsky‘s research on dysreflexia involves injecting
adenoviruses, replication—defective viruses, into injured spi-
nal cords of rats. These viruses can be designed to encode
special growth factors as well as growth inhibitors that may
alleviate autonomic dysreflexia after a spinal cord injury.

He is also very interested in a cell called microglia.

“lt’sa unique cell in the central nervous system,“ Rabchevsky
says. “it‘s very enigmatic because people don't know exactly
what its normal function is. When the central nervous system
is disturbed—from disease or trauma—microglia are immedi-
ately activated and they mobilize to the site of injury. For many
years, people associated them with the bad guys: ‘Look,
there’s death and destruction, and there‘s microglia.‘ But it

turns out that microglia might be the good guys, trying to
augment self-repair processes. My work, along with the work
of others, has shown that microglia in the injured rat spinal
cord are actually pro-regenerative. They potentially secrete
molecules that can actually help guide regenerating axons.

“Again, this a combinational approach,“ he says. “I want to
extend my initial studies and fully characterize how microglia
help to promote regeneration in the injured spinal cord.

“There’s not going to be a magic bullet,” he says of treat—
ments and methods used to study spinal cord injuries. “It’s not
going to be one answer or one intervention. We have to attack
this problem through multidisciplinary approaches, incorpo-
rating basic investigations into the cellular and molecular
mechanisms that translate into improving the quality of life for
those who are paralyzed.”

  

    
 
   
 

Sara Moore and Bill Bintz have
an extensixe collection of award—
winning children’s books for use
in their turrent project, but both
agree on \\ hat thm call their
”mantra”: “\\e’re not about

collecting books \\ e’re about

connecting books to meaningful

curriculum,"

 

he kids in the children's section at Joseph—Beth Book-

sellers in Lexington must wonder about Bill Bintz and

Sara Moore. The two UK College of Education profes-
sors can be found there often, excitedly passing new books
back and forth and piling up the “gotta haves.”

“Sara, have a look at One Woolly Wombat! This might go
along nicely with BatJamboree—see what you think."

“Great! And take a look at this one, Bill—Counting Croco-
diles. Maybe a companion to One Cow Laughing?”

But for the “biggest kids in children‘s books,” as Bintz refers
to the two of them, it's all in a day‘s work.

“When Bill and I go to a conference, we‘re all over any used
bookstores we can find," says Moore, who holds a Ph.D. in
gifted education from the University of Virginia. “He’s looking
for engaging narratives, and I’m focusing on how accurate the
math and science are."

Such fieldwork is the basis for a collaborative project de-
signed to support teachers in learning to use high-quality and
award-winning children‘s mathematical and scientific prin—
ciples. The project, which is being funded by an Eisenhower
Grant, is a collaboration between UK and the Appalachian

 

Using
Literature
to Teach
Math and

Science

  

 

Rural Systemic lnitiative. During the grant period, from Janu—
ary 2002 to June 2003, Moore and Bintzwillwork with approxi-
mately 75 teachers in grades four through eight from 35
counties in Eastern Kentucky.

“Many children don‘t have a context for understanding
science and math,“ says Bintz, who came to UK from James
Madison University in 1997 and who specializes in inquiry-
based learning and teaching, reading across the curriculum,
and curriculum development. “Good literature gives them
that context and ‘eases’ them into the math and science.
Children think in narrative terms, so were simply building on
that strength."

He reaches up to one of several long shelves of children’s
books in his Dickey Hall office and pulls down Sir Cumference
& the First Round Table by Cindy Neuschwander. Bintz ex-
plains that in this book Sir Cumference‘s land is surrounded
by a tribe called the Circumscribers. Sir Cumference is mar-
ried to Lady Di of Ameter and they have a son named Radius.
“This is clearly an engaging narrative that young children can
tap into. They're drawn into the story and along the way learn
some basic mathematical principles,” Bintz says.

He recalls a very satisfying incident that followed from a
classroom reading of this book when he was visiting an
elementary school. “One boy came in the next morning and
said, “Hey, Bill, guess what? I’m not a Radius!‘ He explained
that he had gone home and stood next to his mother. He
wasn’t half her height yet, so he knew he wasn‘t a radius. This
was an immediate real-world application to what the boy had
just learned.“

10

Another very useful book, Moore says, is The Warlord’s
Beads by Virginia Walton Pilegard, which illustrates foryoung
children a method of counting that’s ancient and time—tested:
the use of an abacus.

“The main character is a boy whose father is the chief
counter for the warlord. But people keep interrupting the
father, which causes him to lose count,” Moore explains. “So
the warlord starts thinking his bead-counter is shorting him,
that’s he’s being cheated, and this clearly worries the boy."
But the father decides to put the beads on a stick, and this
solution saves the day. The counting can now be referenced.
“A child reading this will naturally identify with the boy in the
story, so there‘s a clear context for the importance of counting
and a methodology."

This book and previous work Moore has done in trying to
help elementary-level teachers teach math led Moore and
Bintz to develop a “hands-on" session for teachers in first and
second grades. 1n explaining what this session involves, Bintz
recounts a conversation he had with his daughter as they
waited to board a plane.

“l was taking my daughter Madrean, age 14, with me to a
professional conference, but she didn’t know what it was
about. She asked, ‘Dad, what are you and Sara going to do
there?’ ‘Well,’ I said, ‘we‘re going to go to a conference for
math teachers, and first we‘re going to read this children’s
book called The Warlords Beads. Then Sara and l are going to
pass around a big box of Fruit Loops—all different colors—
and different—colored pipe cleaners, and then we have this
square card stock where we‘ve taken out the center except
for about a two-inch perimeter.’ “What are you doing all
that for?’ she asked. ‘They're going to make abacuses in this
session, and then the teachers will go back home and help
children learn mathematics.”

“My daughter pan-faced me, looked me right in the eye, and,
in a voice much louder than it needed to be, said, ‘And how
old are you?”

Moore admits that this conference session was good fun,
which she says is exactly the point. “We're using the baseline
of play as a teaching tool, but for us this is serious play,” she
says. By using a self-made abacus in the classroom, teachers
can help kids learn about number sense and systems, place
value, and regrouping. “This is especially valuable for kids
who are more visually oriented,” Moore adds.

And though play is an important ingredient in the mix of
early childhood learning, Bintz and Moore are very serious
about their methodology. What they would like to see, in fact,
is nothing less than an entirely different approach to the
teaching of math and science in the elementary-school class—
room, one in which children’s literature would take prece-
dence over traditional textbooks.

 “lf 1 were teaching math and science, I would still have a
textbook in the class, but I’d use it merely asa reference tool——
to look up facts or a summary of key words,” Moore says.
“Ideally, the shelves of my classroom would look like this,” she
says, gesturing to the hundreds of children’s books that line
Bintz’s shelves in his UK office. “Here is a collection of
wonderful, award-winning literature, many of these books
fabulously illustrated as well. Why in the world wouldn ’tl use
them?“

Bintz admits that several teachers he’s spoken with have
had misgivings about this approach. Some are worried that
despite the interest thatwould be generated by using children’s
literature, mandated standards might suffer. And some teach-
ers are frankly uneasy about relegating the textbooks they’ve
been using for so long to merely a supporting role.

“In thinking about our approach,” Moore explains,“we
looked at national standards and Kentucky core content to
make sure these goals would be met. We‘re acknowledging
these standards but saying, ‘Look how rich books like these
can support the attainment of these standards.’ And ordered
in a sequential way, these books can allow teachers to make
some sophisticated decisions about when individual students
are ready for different principles of math and science.”

Organizing dozens of books into such a sequence was a
timeconsuming but essential part of this project. Out of these
efforts, several colorcoded "text clusters“ evolved, linking the
stories to various scientific and mathematical concepts. One
figure, for example, shows books that illustrate counting up,

 
        
     

counting down, the sum of a series of numbers, grouping, and
skipcounting. Another figure lists literature related to shapes and
measurement; and a third lists books that can lead students to an
understanding of reasoning, topology, and dimensionality.

This approach may sound tantalizing for many elementary
school teachers in Kentucky, but how many schools would be
willing and able to buy—and continue to buy—these books?

“Schools can build libraries of these books; they just have to
do it over time," Bintz says. “The textbook allocation that
comes from the state can be used for trade books like this. The
stipulation is that the money has to be spent on instructional
material, so buying these books would certainly be legiti-
mate."

“If I were a sixth—grade science teacher teaching 100 kids,"
Moore says, “I could buy one set of 25 textbooks and instead
of buying the other 75, I could spend that money on a
collection of literature. The textbooks would still be there in
the classroom, but I’d also have a collection of literature that
i could continue to build. For instance, 1 would use Mr,
Archimedes Bath by Pamela Allen to teach displacement,
experimental design, and some history of science,”

In trying to garner support for this approach, Moore and
Bintz initially modeled this method last January with a group
of “teacher—partners," classroom teachers in the 35-c