K.I.D.S. Club was exactly what I would like to experience in on a daily basis.
Cells are a pretty common topic throughout school and at each level you delve deeper and deeper into the inner workings--in high school students build on the organelles by learning about the chemical reactions that turn sunlight or food into energy as well as the chemical components of DNA. In college an entire class is devoted to cell biology (aptly named Cell Biology) and students learn about the protein complexes that form the cell organelles, the intermediate steps in energy production, protein synthesis, and DNA duplication. Just because many students had already learned the material didn't mean they didn't need more exposure to such an important foundation in science. I also included descriptions of several organelles and concepts that may not have been covered in the fifth grade curriculum, but were not beyond the ability of young students to grasp.
I liked that students were eager to answer questions--if they knew something they wanted me to know they knew it. This actually gave me a lot of opportunities to acknowledge and affirm their new or prior knowledge. I purposefully applauded students for correct answers and was careful not to use very negative language for incorrect answers, choosing phrases such as "not quite" and "you're on the right track" instead which resulted in an atmosphere that encouraged participation and learning. I not so purposefully implied that there would be fun activities later in the class period. Although there were difficulties during activities with students wandering around, I feel like that was to be expected with the students having had a fair amount of sugar and quickly transferring between different activities (I hadn't yet read that such transitions can be difficult for students). In the future, I would focus on one activity with all of the students at the same time so that there would be more hands to man the decks to keep kids focused.
I liked that students were eager to answer questions--if they knew something they wanted me to know they knew it. This actually gave me a lot of opportunities to acknowledge and affirm their new or prior knowledge. I purposefully applauded students for correct answers and was careful not to use very negative language for incorrect answers, choosing phrases such as "not quite" and "you're on the right track" instead which resulted in an atmosphere that encouraged participation and learning. I not so purposefully implied that there would be fun activities later in the class period. Although there were difficulties during activities with students wandering around, I feel like that was to be expected with the students having had a fair amount of sugar and quickly transferring between different activities (I hadn't yet read that such transitions can be difficult for students). In the future, I would focus on one activity with all of the students at the same time so that there would be more hands to man the decks to keep kids focused.
I honestly didn't think about the lesson in very much detail. When I prepare diligently (such as for a presentation in class) and write an outline and practice, I generally do much poorly than when I give the presentation in an off the cuff manner. In other words, I do a much better job speaking extemporaneously than with a prepared speech. This habit gives me a lot more flexibility in public speaking situation and allows me to respond better to nonverbal cues I receive from my audience. Had I stuck to a script for the lesson, I might not have noticed when students became disinterested or I might even have omitted asking questions and receiving feedback entirely. Instead, I was able to feel my way through the lesson and adjust in ways that I felt would capture the students imaginations. An unfortunate side effect of this technique is that my lessons got better as they day progressed, which put earlier students at a disadvantage (although they had more options for their cookie cells--maybe that evens things out!). Perhaps in a a classroom this experience would carry over from year to year by taking careful notes at the end of each day to utilize the following year.
Andrew, being a computer scientist, knows very little about cells and I couldn't really incorporate him into the lesson itself. I've even recently asked him about some of the organelles we covered and he couldn't remember most of the names and functions! What I failed at, however, was, giving him more guidance about different ways to handle the cookie activity. For example, I had originally thought for students to include only two or three organelles since there wasn't very much room on the cookies, but I neglected to communicate that information with Andrew. I also feel like many students may have gotten caught up in decorating and not been adequately quizzed about what organelles they put in their cells to further facilitate learning and memory formation, but without being involved in that activity at all I'm not entirely sure if that was the case or not. I would probably concentrate on the cookie activity in the future--not only was it the least messy, but I also feel like students were more interested and had more opportunities to learn.
My favorite experience of the day was when one curious fourth grader asked what may seem like a silly question: “Are cells like amusement parks?” Rather than dismissing this notion as childish, I ran with it. The kids helped me compare the cell components to different rides and attractions: ribosomes built the park according to plans sent from the nucleus, the ER and golgi bodies were roller coasters while the mitochondria and chloroplast were hotdog and pretzel stands, and the cell membrane was the ticket booth! I have never had so much fun explaining such simple concepts before, and I would love to be able to do this on a daily basis.
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