I taught 5th and 6th graders their first Environmental Science class of the year and am revising my lesson plans in my mind as I type. Just in case you were wondering, I was speaking Spanish.
Stasia: Tell me your first name and your favorite animal. I´ll go first! I´m Stasia and I like manatees and sloths.
(Horrified silence at being forced to come up with a favorite animal)
(Several minutes pass) Then favorite animals: Dog, dog, dog, cat, dog, sheep, cat, cat, cat, cat, dog, puppy, cat, parrot, dog, dog.
Stasia: We´ll be having classes all year! What are some environmental science topics that you want to learn about?
Kid 1: To not litter!
Kid 2: How we went from cells to monkeys to humans and how God made us.
Kid 3: Plants and animals!
Stasia: What about plants and animals?
Kid 3: Plants and animals! Their parts!
Kid 4: Multiplication tables!
Kid 5: Friendship!
They are not dumb, and they´re mostly very nice and enthusiastic kids. They´re just not on the wavelength of kids I´ve worked with or how I remember myself and they have no experience with creativity or critical thinking in the classroom. I´ll have to ease them into it.
I want to do a lesson on adaptations and expand it to the ecology of cryptozoological creatures, but I think we´ll have to work up to it. Is dragon fire for hunting or defense? Do mermaids gestate or reproduce in the water column? Pegasus migration? The ecological niche of the chupacabra? Fun, right?
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