Teacher Mariann Jones provides her third graders at Cedar Springs Elementary School in House Springs with a comprehensive education that stimulates their minds and senses. She uses music, rhymes and role-playing to teach curricular concepts according to students' multiple intelligences, and maintains a menagerie of animals from the St. Louis Zoo to provide students with a first-hand experience of nature. Mrs. Jones familiarizes students not only with information technology such as word processors and math software, but with scientific tools as well, such as microscopes and thermometers. Each year she coordinates the school's CARE Day (Community Activities Resource Education), when community members speak about their hobbies and jobs, from collecting fossils to working as a state legislator.
