We were in Boulder, Colorado over the holidays staying with our son, his wife and our little granddaughter. They have a pastel calico cat named Tuolumne – you know - a cat that used to be the “child” before a human one came along. They keep their cat indoors, protected from the bears and cougars which have been seen in Boulder. But the cat is determined to get out so they will let her into the back yard when they are working there. My son was outside with Tuolumne one afternoon when I went into the living room to tell my daughter-in-law something. At that moment I spied through the window an absolutely exquisite red fox running from the side of the house into the back yard. I interrupted myself and ran to the window to watch this beautiful animal. But my daughter-in-law, shouted “Tuolumne is out,” and ran outside to save her cat. As I watched the fox head to the rear of the play house, I worried that the cat was behind the playhouse and would soon be a fox dinner. But just at this moment, I saw Tuolumne race from the side of the house, chasing that fox out of her yard as fast as she could! It was quite an unexpected sight – a 10 pound house cat chasing a large, beautiful, red fox.
I tucked this story away in my mind to tell my students in North Carolina. I collect stories. I love to watch my students settle back with interest when I start telling some tale about nature that I have experienced or read. And I get a particular chuckle when they think they have tricked me into deviating from a lesson and telling a story. What my students don’t know is that my deviations are very calculated – almost always!
Stories can help excite students over a lesson. Just recently, I was launching a two-week project on Integrated Pest Management (IPM). Now, this is NOT a topic that typically causes great excitement in a 14 or 15 year old. I could just imagine the yawns and groans. But I started with a couple of stories. In 1998, it was reported that 7 children were born without eyes in Ontario, Canada. The parents suspect fungicides, although this has not been scientifically validated. Ironically, in 1980, I met a woman who had a little son born without eyes. She was a chemist and in her research to get answers, she began to suspect an aphid spray that she had used during the critical point in embryological development. And in 2002 in New Zealand, a farmer used a tractor to block a gate so that a regional council could not get in to spray a fungicide in a nearby drain. The farmer blamed the fungicide for his calves who were born without eyes. My students were fascinated by the idea that chemicals could possibly cause such defects in development. We talked about other possibilities such as genetic mutations and we discussed the type of research that would be needed to try and discover what might have caused the cases of anophthalmia in Canada.
And then I told the story of Agent Orange, the herbicide used during the Vietnam War. I knew someone who died from cancer who had served in Vietnam and had been heavily exposed to Agent Orange. At that time, the government was denying any connection. However, just recently, military researchers have conceded that exposure to Agent Orange has increased the risk of prostate and skin cancer. This story led to a lively discussion of everything from the purpose of Agent Orange, to the reasons for government denial, to the slow process of research and the need to carefully and scientifically investigate hypotheses.
By the time I had introduced their research project related to IPM, they were bubbling with interest. They are prepared to call various institutions to find out what pesticides the institutions use. They will research various pesticides and the pests, themselves. They will present their findings to their classmates and write letters to the institutions that they investigate. Once again, the power of stories was confirmed! My students are eager to proceed.
………..I don’t know when I will use the fox story. Maybe I will use it when we discuss animal behavior – always a popular unit. Maybe I will save it for a day when there are a few minutes left at the end of class. I know many of my students will have their own stories to tell – and I will save some of those stories for next year’s students. Maybe this is one of the secrets of teaching – knowing the right stories to tell!
2 comments:
Geez, you guys started out so nicely, where have you all gone since February?
I used to live in Chapel Hill, and did a little student teaching (German, of all things) at the local high school. I hope you restart this blog soon, I'm looking for fellow biology teachers who blog.
Mike
I have a three month old daughter born with anopthalmia. I found your story very interesting. I myself have a biology major and chemistry minor. I have taught 10th grade high school biology for five years. As I was saying, my daughter was born 4-25-06 with very rare genetic deformity caused by a partial deletion to the long arm (q) of her 21st chromosome. We have found through genetic testing that it is random chance that she has this syndrome. However, we do know that it was caused by either a mutation in the sperm or egg. Funny thing-my father was in the Vietnam war and exposed to Agent Orange. Of course we will never know why, but it does make you/me wonder.
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