The subject of biology is active, alive, and applicable to the lives of every student, young or old. Teaching biology this year to twelve vigorous 9th and 10th graders has been a great caper. During my planning process for teaching biology class, I am always thinking of creative and engaging ways to draw the students into the subject for the day. While teaching the unit on human digestion, the class was specifically focusing on the first two steps. The class were very familiar with the first step: chewing our food in our mouth to break down any substance. However, I desired to demonstrate the second step: where food is swallowed and travels down our esophagus with the help of a process called peristalsis. In order to provide a hands-on way of teaching this concept to the class, students were grouped together and given the challenge of getting a whole banana, which represented the food we eat, through a narrow, flexible, clear tube and into a bowl representing the stomach. As the class began the adventure most groups were skeptical of success, but as they explored how the human body accomplishes the task their imaginations moved into action. The challenge began to become extremely messy as bananas were squished, smashed, squeezed, and liquefied down the tube. Mimicking the process food undergoes when it enters our body the students used their problem solving skills to reach victory. Even though students had banana in their hair and clothes the demonstration and biology class for the day were a great success.
No comments:
Post a Comment