...Something I really missed last year: the sheer enthusiasm of Year 7 kids! These are the 11-12 year-olds who started at "Big School" back in September.Today I taught them how to make a microscope slide with onion epidermis. Each group had to set up their own microscope, extract the layer of onion epidermis, put it on the slide, add iodine, put on a cover slip (avoiding air bubbles) and then have a look at their slide down the microscope.
"Proper" science stuff. The kids loved it, and were terribly excited when they actually saw the results - and then went round looking at everyone else's slides. Suddenly all the stuff in the textbook became real for them.
If only you had taught me back in 1980 when i was a 12 year old bored rigid by the lessons terrified by the then master.
ReplyDeleteHeheheh... I, too, am "terrifying" to my Year 7s when they misbehave. It's taken a whole half term to get them trained up so that we can do the practicals without major mishaps (like arranging a one-way system round the classroom when collecting equipment, and learning to put hands up and not shout out...)
ReplyDelete...and there are the boring bits of lessons as well... all necessary at times!
I love kids 11-12 years old. Old enough to have a reasonably good attention span, but not old enough to be jaded!
ReplyDeleteKaren
I'm sure that in years to come 12 year olds will be allowed to grow their own chimeras in the practical science classes!
ReplyDeleteGeorge... don't burst my bubble!
ReplyDelete