Missouri River Scientists Yearly Reflection
Bringing the River to You
This educational traveling trunk program provides classroom teachers, scout leaders, homeschool groups, and families with tried and true lesson plans and materials to explore the management of the endangered Pallid Sturgeon in a very real and engaging way.
2025 Reflection
Missouri River Scientists brought a place-based curriculum about the Missouri River to classrooms throughout Mid-Missouri in 2025. This year saw 388 Mid-Missouri students dig into the story of the Pallid Sturgeon.
Thank you to the schools who participated in Missouri River Scientists in 2025:
- Cedar Hill Elementary
- St. Stanislaus School
- Bartley Elementary
- Russell Boulevard Elementary
- Thorpe Gordon STEM Academy
- Grant Elementary
- Midway Heights Elementary
- Jefferson City Parks and Rec Summer Camps
Interested in a Traveling Trunk?
Learn More Here
2024 Reflection
Missouri River Scientists brought the Missouri River to classrooms throughout Mid-Missouri in 2024. This year saw 449 Mid-Missouri students engaging with place-based learning and digging into the mysteries of the pallid sturgeon fish! Click on a photo to view more.
Thank you to the schools who participated in Missouri River Scientists in 2024:
- Alpha Hart Lewis Elementary
- Blue Ridge Elementary
- Bartley Elementary
- Douglass High School
- Grant Elementary
- Hallsville Intermediate School
- Russell Boulevard Elementary
One of our 2024 highlights was being invited as a guest judge to Grant Elementary's pallid sturgeon management plan debate. Teams of students presented arguments to a panel of expert judges from the community, as well as an audience of parents and school staff members. Shout out to Mrs. Poage for creating this incredible experience for her students!
"Students loved the hands on experiments and model. Group work is always a hit! I love that all materials are ready to go and easy to use." -Teacher at Bartley Elementary in Fulton, MO
2023 Reflection
Missouri River Scientists brought a place-based curriculum about the Missouri River to classrooms throughout Mid-Missouri in 2023. This year saw 388 Mid-Missouri students dig into the story of the Pallid Sturgeon.
Thank you to the schools who participated in Missouri River Scientists in 2023:
- Battle Elementary
- Bartley Elementary
- David Barton Elementary
- Douglass High School
- Grant Elementary
- Russell Boulevard Elementary
- Shepard Boulevard Elementary
- Midway Heights Elementary
"I'm so glad I borrowed the trunk! It was fun for the kids and myself, everything was prepared and aligned to standards, and it exposed kids to an issue going on in their community that they had been unaware of."-Teacher at Columbia Public Schools
2022 Reflection
Missouri River Scientists reached the classrooms of over 750 Mid-Missouri students in 2022. It was an incredible year of learning for young river scientists.
In 2022, trunks visited the following schools:
- Grant Elementary
- Two Mile Prairie Elementary
- Columbia Academy for Learning and Enrichment
- Russell Boulevard Elementary
- Blue Ridge Elementary
- Bartley Elementary
- Douglass High School
- New Haven Elementary
- Alpha Hart Lewis Elementary
"The students really enjoyed the hands on activities like building the dam and working with the muddy water. The debate/hearing on the last day was also really enjoyed by all." -Teacher at Bartley Elementary in Fulton, MO
Check us out in the Science and Education Journal
We are so excited to share that our education programs made their first peer-reviewed journal! In 2022, our research on the “Missouri River All-Stars Program” now called “Missouri River Scientists: Traveling Trunk” was featured in the “Science and Education” Journal!
This article is called “Promoting Young Learners’ Nature of Science Views Through Place-Based Socio-Scientific Issues Instruction”. We can’t share the article directly but we did screenshot some of the abstract, and discussion. Big thank you to Mizzou: College of Education, Ben Herman, Sarah Poor, and Tanner Oertli for showing how place-based teaching about the Missouri River can leverage students’ sense of place and augment their classroom experiences in ways that help them understand the nature of science and engage local socio-scientific issues.
Creating the Pallid Sturgeon
One of the highlights of our trunks is the pallid sturgeon replicas. These pieces were created in hopes of making the issue the students are studying less abstract and more concrete.
A special thanks go to the maker of the four pallid sturgeons, Joshua Knuth. He is a taxidermist and 3D artist who was able to create our pallid sturgeon replicas by 3D printing 13 individual pieces and hand painting them in order to get the final product.
If you would like to see more work from Joshua, click here.
A Big Muddy Thank You to Our Sponsors
Thanks to our generous sponsors for supporting the Missouri River Scientists traveling trunk program and the creation of place-based education resources for our community. Also, thank you to Sam Stukel and US Geological Survey - CERC for allowing us the use of their photos.
