At a table in the vast library of Carter & MacRae Elementary School last week, fifth-grader Julissa Figueroa was reading about the life cycle of a dollar bill.

A few tables over, Leticia Delgado was peering at an atlas, trying to figure out where Sojourner Truth lived, and Savannah Hill was checking Web sites for information on the effects of CFCs on the environment.

By each pupil's side was a student from Millersville University. The college students were learning, too — how to help a boy with limited English skills read aloud or how to help a girl who has never used an encyclopedia find information within its pages.

The collaboration is a first-year partnership between the two schools designed to benefit both.

MU students get real-world teaching experience in a challenging urban district, and Carter & MacRae gets some help with its social studies fair, an ambitious effort involving every fourth- and fifth-grader in the school.

"Without the MU students, it would be very difficult to complete this project," fifth-grade teacher Jamie Warner said. "This is the first time (Carter & MacRae students) have done research."

The MU students are elementary education majors enrolled in professor Joseph Labant's "Teaching of Social Studies" class. Most are juniors or seniors who will do their student teaching next fall.

To earn credit for Labant's class, they had the option of helping out at Carter & MacRae or working on the college's Global Awareness Fair. Fifty of the 80 students chose Carter & MacRae, where they spend at least one class period each week helping young students.

"I love it, I really do," MU student Christine Erdman said of her experience. "That's why I'm a teacher. When you pop me in a classroom, I'm a different person. You can't keep me down."

Erdman was paired with Leticia, while MU student Karen Weaver was working at another table with Krystal Reyes, who was researching ancient civilizations, and Samantha Santos, who was reading about George Washington.

The elementary students picked their own fair topics or chose from a list of 75 provided by Warner and fourth-grade teacher Robert Slamp. The topics range beyond history to areas such as economics, geography, sociology, anthropology and political science, Slamp said.

Students with academic difficulties are given worksheets listing questions about their topics to help guide their research. Other students have to come up with their own questions.

The pupils must find information from at least two books, atlases or other print sources before they can begin an Internet search.

They also must read aloud the information they find and discuss its relevance with their MU helpers before including it in their reports and bibliographies. Once the research and writing is done, students will create displays with illustrations, maps and other graphics on trifold boards.

"That's an intensive effort," said Labant, who has served as a judge at the social studies fair — the only one of its kind in Pennsylvania.

"(The MU students) see how much work teachers have to do with students to have a successful project," he said.

His students also have been able to experience a holistic approach to education through the projects, Labant noted.

"It's not just social studies. Students are also engaging in writing and research and the inquiry approach to learning."

Labant and Slamp, who both serve on the Pennsylvania Council for the Social Studies, had discussed collaborating on the social studies fair for several years and came up with the current plan after last year's fair.

"The Carter & MacRae experience has been great for my students," Labant said.

Their young counterparts seem to like it as well.

College students "are more fun to work with" than her teachers, Samantha said.

They also have more time to devote to each student, Krystal said.

"The teacher always has to go to different students, so she doesn't have time to go to other students," she said.

The partnership will continue until the projects are completed for the fair, scheduled for May 22.

Labant said he hopes MU can continue its collaboration with Carter & MacRae next year and possibly expand it to other schools.

E-mail: bwallace@lnpnews.com