Root Beer in School?

[Alec Kotler]

 

 

This Friday Mr. Johnson led a very engaging and active class where the students were particularly excited to see the fruits of the previous class lab experiment. The students had made root beer through yeast fermentation and by the end of Friday’s class they were able to drink it! Today’s class period was divided into three parts. The first was a thorough discussion/recap of what the class previously did to make the root beer. This was a collaborative discussion and almost all the students elected to contribute. You could tell from their energy and participation that they had been very invested in this lab. Then the students broke into small groups for the majority of the class to watch a video on mitosis which was a new topic being introduced. Finally, the students were able to drink their root beer after they briefly evaluated the production process.

Three objectives of today’s class activities appeared to be as follows: 1) collaborate together to recall, solidify and organize the most important components of the previous lab work, 2) introduce and learn important information surrounding the biological process of mitosis from the video and then discuss and expand on information learned, and finally 3) to experience the results of scientific processes (the root beer) and demonstrate scientific analysis through discussing possible error in experimental design that may have led to the root beer tasting different from standard root beer brands.

Mr. Johnson used an enticing opening for the class today that also consisted of using a little bit of positive reinforcement. As class began, he stated “if you guys work really hard on these guided notes worksheet for a video about mitosis, I’ll let you try your root beer.” This was an effective way to motivate the students for the upcoming activities and to encourage their focus on the video activity in a way that also reinforced its importance. This reinforcement tactic effectively got the most out of the students on this Friday morning because, of course, they all want to try their root beer.

Today’s lesson promoted intrinsic motivation. The students worked hard on making root beer and they were really looking forward to trying it. They got together in groups to complete the day’s lesson on mitosis and were clearly focused and engaged. The collaborative nature of the video exercise left room for each student to really decide for themselves how invested they wanted to be; they could have left more of the work up to peers, for example. While they were all motivated to get the work done to get to the root beer, there was no other external motivation from the teacher or the assistant to push them through the day’s lesson. The students only had the root beer tasting hanging over their heads and they were internally driven to watch the video, learn about mitosis, discuss the significance together and only then drink some root beer. The previous lesson, on cellular respiration that ended with the root beer lab, had already demonstrated to them the ways in which these scientific concepts often apply to real life in ways that are fun, and often things they care about. I think their past experience with that really helped develop intrinsic motivation to learn about this next concept of mitosis.

The hour class length was divided up into three parts as stated earlier. First, an opening discussion of previous root beer lab work. This took about 10 minutes. Then the students got into their groups to watch a Khan academy video about mitosis and then take notes as they listened. Some students opted, in fact, to refrain from joining a group and to watch this video by themselves. This portion of class took about 35 minutes. Finally, the class ended with a wonderful tasting of their crafted root beer which took about 15 minutes. After that, the students were free to leave at their will but most opted to stay to talk to their peers, the teacher and just enjoy the reward after a long first quarter of work and productive day of learning.

Mr. Johnson concluded the day by congratulating the students on all their hard work this first quarter of school as well as reminding them to not come to school on Monday (because it is not in session). He also told the students to remember this hand signaling description of mitosis that he instructed the students to do in order to remember the phases of mitosis. He then did one final demonstration of this signaling description with his hands before the bell rung, dismissing the class.

The teacher did not specifically discuss what will happen next because he is absent till next Thursday . He did mention that they will continue diving into the unit of mitosis and meiosis and the complexities that reside within them. The teacher’s structure of the day’s lesson seemed quite intentional. The lesson considered the needs of the students as a whole. It purposefully re-enforced previous material learned and incorporated both as a positive reinforcer and motivator by utilizing a really appealing activity. It introduced the mitosis lesson in a clear way using video – rather than lecture – which is just another format that some students might respond to better than others, and also used a guided worksheet keeping students focused and on task. It also had the students working in groups (per their election) which provided peer support and allowed for group discussion. The teacher designed this group activity in a way that facilitated the best learning environment for his students per individual learning styles. If a student was more effective learning in a group environment, they were given that option. If they didn’t feel comfortable in that environment, or were better working alone, that was an available option as well. This allowed the student to work in their best environment, and also involved some self-reflection on what is best for them to succeed. Overall, I believe the lesson was quite the successful.

While the students were drinking their root beer and celebrating a long quarter of school coming to a close, two very interesting conversations took place. First, I was very impressed by how the students were describing their root beer’s taste. Many were discussing how it compared to standard root beer that we all drink such as Muggs, Barq’s, A&W, etc. Comments of too sweet or not sweet enough or watered down were common. What was also common was the comments of the root beer’s fizz or lack thereof. This was shortly followed up by explaining what needed to be done to make it fizzier in their experiment. This authentic and spontaneous discussion of experimental design was pleasantly surprising to hear. I was observing first hand proof of these students appreciating and digesting the scientific elements of their lab – a sure sign of good instruction.

The second discussion of note that occurred was with Mr. Johnson and I. He and I were discussing the importance of teaching to a curriculum and how sometimes that hinders sparking creativity amongst the students and why the curriculum must always be flexible based on what Mr. Johnson sees the students liking or not (similar to what the reading refers to as “emergent curriculum”). Teaching to the student is a lot more important than teaching to a test but sometimes it’s hard to balance this because there is so much pressure from the school to teach toward a standardized test. This is something Mr. Johnson feels is easy for bad teachers to resolve, they just teach toward the test. Good teachers, like Mr. Johnson, feel obligated to do what his superiors instruct him to but also care about teaching for the students and what is the best way for them to develop. This is something he struggles with every year while making his schedule. I wonder how much this conflict for teachers differs between public and private schools and I also wonder how much leverage teachers have in this regard? Do their unions help with this issue? What can be done to better balance what teachers (and it seems most educational theory) see as most useful for students, and the governmental need for oversight and metrics that can be evaluated.

• This topic was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by Alec Kotler.

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