Yesterday's 'reveal' of the pineapple was a big success. You can just see the astonishment written across normally stoic faces. They have that wide-eyed sense of wonder like when they were younger. They briefly forget to be 'cool' teenagers and simply start thinking. When that third test tube is upturned and the 'gelatin' is revealed to be simply liquid, my fun really begins. Out come the questions! Out come possible explanations (hypothesizing). Now my opportunity to really teach. I get to point students in the direction of various evidences that clearly refute their initial explanations.
"What does the canned pineapple list as ingredients?"
"If your idea is right, then explain why the control tube is not liquid."
"Did we treat the two pineapple samples differently?"
"What is citric acid and what fruit do you think naturally contains it?"
"What source are you using to support that explanation?"
Students are forced to go deeper, think harder, and search for support instead of simply stating their opinion as a fact. Some days, I really love my job!
As fun as yesterday was, today was a pretty good ride, too. However instead of a well planned demonstration, I had to teach impromptu. This article from the Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences, begged for my attention. I read it during my prep and realized it would work well in my anatomy class. My students have been working on their individualized research projects. The current assignment is to find a primary source article about their specific chosen tetrapod. Over the next two weeks, we're going to spend some time in class and at home working through the papers, learning how to read real science. I slapped the Homo sapiens / archaic Homo hanky-panky genetic evidence up on the smartboard and bam! Instant attention.
My whole prepared introduction to the digestive system was tossed and we delved headlong into genetics, populations, microcephaly, biological species concept, evolution, natural selection and finally ring species. Follow that up with the remaining 30 minutes of one of the best Life of Mammals episodes and you have one great day. I show so many David Attenborough documentaries and my kids love them so much that I think they would be willing to form their own chapter of his fan club! Of course to them, David is simply "that funny sounding old guy" but hey, I thought similiar of Jacques Cousteau at one time.
On the downside, I still have a mountain of grading to slog through. Teacher-nirvana is wonderful; however, it remains fleeting.
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