Chris Chivers (Thinks)

  • Home
  • Blog-Thinking Aloud
  • Contact
  • Contents
  • PDFs
  • Sing and strum

November is a rotten month

23/10/2015

0 Comments

 
Not just because the clocks have changed and the days seem to be longer and darker, as well as wetter, windier and colder.
Discovering that a slice of cake had gone mouldy in it’s box, reminded me of an impromptu classroom topic that “grew” out of a similar experience.
Picture
For some teachers, this week will have been half term and, for them, sadly, it will be coming to a close, just as another large group will have struggled their way through the last week, probably running on empty, fuelled by cakes and chocolate for instant energy. Some staffrooms will have been left untouched for nine days. There will be items left in fridges and cupboards and unwashed coffee mugs which will have started to develop a life of their own.

This regular event, apart from becoming a topic of great debate among the staff about whose job it was to keep the staffroom clean and tidy, spawned an impromptu running topic in a classroom at the time that I was covering for an absent member of staff.

Finding a number of unclaimed clear plastic boxes in the staffroom cupboards and in lost property, I encased a number of the more interesting items and sealed them with tape to deter the more adventurous fiddlers, at least to make it more difficult. These boxes of developing moulds became a source of much interest and were added to with children bringing in their own examples, similarly encased. We allowed some fruits to “go off”, explored the contents of a compost heap and did some basic research into related areas. It became a sort of “running homework”, as individuals added to the sum of knowledge.

For example, a child might go home and discover: -

   Sir Alexander Fleming
  • Born August 6, 1881 in Darvel, Scotland
  • Died March 11, 1955 in London, England
In 1928, Sir Alexander Fleming observed that colonies of the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus could be destroyed by the mould Penicillium notatum, proving that there was an antibacterial agent there in principle. This principle later lead to medicines that could kill certain types of disease-causing bacteria inside the body.

Or

A father of microbiology
Few people have saved more lives than Louis Pasteur. The vaccines he developed have protected millions. His insight that germs cause disease revolutionised healthcare. He found new ways to make our food safe to eat.
Pasteur was the chemist who fundamentally changed our understanding of biology. By looking closely at the building blocks of life, he was at the forefront of a new branch of science: microbiology.

These insights, when shared, fired the imaginations of others, who went into the school or local library or in some cases, supported by interested parents, did search the internet.

While the plastic boxes were in the classroom, they were the subject of observations, as well as drawn and written recordings.

Surrounding the whole was a working wall of developing ideas. Keeping the moulds ended when the caretaker complained about a developing smell, but it was fun while it lasted.


0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Chris Chivers

    Long career in education, classroom and leadership; always a learner.
    University tutor and education consultant; Teaching and Learning, Inclusion and parent partnership.
    Francophile, gardener, sometime bodhran player.

    Archives

    March 2021
    January 2021
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    September 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014

    Categories

    All
    Assessment
    Behaviour
    Differentiation
    English
    Experience
    History
    Home Learning
    Inclusive Thinking
    Maths
    Parents
    Science
    SEND
    Sing And Strum
    Teaching And Learning

    RSS Feed

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    Picture
    Click to set custom HTM L
Proudly powered by Weebly