I Was Hot, Hot, Hot Today !

Last night as I lay in bed thinking about the class and their need to study science, a lot of ideas came trickling through my mind. I have been so many places and done so many thi8ngs in my 71 years that I have a lot of true stories top tell my students about what I have seen and experienced.

Today, since they had seen a DVD with spectacular footage of volcanoes, earthquakes, and since I was given the instructions to "teach them science," I decided to start with a short bit about the inter-relatedness of all knowledge, but giving an example from ecology. We talked about an imaginary island populated by deer, wolves, moss, grass, birds and insects. What would happen, I asked them, if Sarah Palin came flying over in a plane (or on a broomstick) and shot most of the wolves ?

They quickly realized that once the wolves were killed, the deer would have no enemies, and would multiply. They then realized that with more deer, the deer population might run out of moss and grass to eat. And then they realized that without moss and grass, many of the insects would die, which would provide a much smaller food supply for the birds, many of which would fly away to some other island.

I then moved into the word for the day, which was "viscous."

These students are"special education," which usually means that they are not very bright. They seem to be learning, however, despite this label. I don't lower standards. I just try to drum the information into their brains.