Those Amazing 3rd Graders And Their Science Projects

Sarah Sterling-Laldee always wanted to know how the world works.

"I was always interested in why stuff happens and science and religion were the answers to that. My dad is a minister so it all still fits," she says. She could find religion at home, but not many science classes in Paterson during the mid 1980's.

Now she wants to help Paterson girls excel in science. A teacher at the city's School 2, she offers an extra-curricular science class on Sunday afternoon. Amazingly, about 15 girls give up two hours each weekend to attend. In addition to general science, Laldee teaches biodiversity which is the study of the differences in plant and animal life in a particular habitat or environment.

Soon eight of her Sunday students and former students will have the opportunity to study the habitat and ecosystems of Grenada in the West Indies. The girls will leaving for the week-long exploration trip on April 19. The program, called Girls United for Earth, will provide a hands-on lesson in geology, oceanography and environmental science.

Laldee explains that as a child she wanted to be an astronaut and did some 3rd grade science projects. In grade school there was little science instruction. At Rosa Parks Fine and Performing Arts High School, Paterson, biology and physics were offered but the courses were taught by a permanent substitute teacher.

Laldee is now a science and social studies teacher. She instructs a total of 108 students in a crowded, bustling brick school in Paterson's historic district. With her long, honey-colored hair and wearing a lavender sweater and slacks, the 29-year-old teacher looks just a few years older than some of her students.

One of them, Alejandra Roldan, remembers hating science in sixth grade. "She (Laldee) taught it in a more fun way, and I was better at it when I did some 3rd grade science projects," said Alejandra, 14, who attends the Passaic County Technical Institute in Wayne.

Kayla Roman, 14, also a County Tech student, said she likes the Sunday science sessions because, "It's interesting to talk about things that affect us in everyday life, like pollution. We talk about how we can make things better."Despite School 2's faded paint, cracked walls and under-sized desks ? it's circa 1920s - Laldee has cheered up her classroom by stocking shelves with books, science publications and National Geographic magazines. Pictures and diagrams dot the walls.

Ladlee says her passion is to enrich girls' lives through science. "I want to teach science to girls who, at this age, think they are stupid because they just don't get it right away," she says.

Ladlee understands her students' plight because she felt the same way at their age. With that in mind, Ladlee applied for a grant to fund her weekend science project. The grant money came from the Eleanor Stinton Mills Fund of the Community Foundation of New Jersey and was funneled through the Paterson Education Fund. The grant has allowed Ladlee to take students on trips to Chinatown and the Metropolitan Museum, as well as behind-the-scenes tours of the Natural History Museum.

"The trip to the art museum was meant to look at scenes of nature. There was a Van Gogh show at the time. Also to teach how art can inspire people to care about nature," Laldee says She says her Sunday sessions also aim to teach students about cultures they would not normally be exposed to and to build tolerance.

Laldee said her first assignment was to teach in an alternative school for girls near the capital of St. George's. "There is only room in high school for one third of the students. At age 12, students take the common entrance test, she explains. Students who fail the test are excluded from secondary school, Laldee says at the alternative school, three teachers taught 19 students.

"The girls were fantastically happy to be going to school. There were some challenging personalities but most were very well motivated," she says. Laldee explains the girls stayed in school until they passed the test or got a job with the tourist industry.

She does a slide presentation for her class about the students in Grenada.

"The kids come away realizing how {fortunate} they are," she says. The second year in Grenada, Laldee says she published a book called Hazard to teach students how to prepare for natural disasters.

Historically the French and the British fought over Granada for 100 years. The textbook was published in English which is the first language in Granada. A French Creole is a nearly dead second language.

Laldee returned to Paterson in 2001 and applied to the Teach for America program which places teaches in urban schools. She said she requested a job in Paterson and was first sent to School 7, near Pennington Park, and moved to School 2 in 2002.