It’s the moment a teacher lives for. The moment when a child’s face lights up. After working hard all period, or perhaps all week, the child finally “gets it.” When I reflect on my Kenan Fellowship and its impact on my classroom, one ah-ha moment sticks out in my mind. I do not think this moment sticks out because it is more significant than others or because it was a grandiose moment, but simply because it was the first moment I saw my classroom change because of Kenan Fellows. This moment was the direct outcome of my interaction with a mentor at Bayer’s Innovation Center.
At the beginning of the year, my fifth graders learn about cells, genetics, and the human body. (Yes, these are huge topics compacted into a five week unit, but such is the nature of fifth grade!) I was activating prior knowledge in warm up activities and introducing students to key vocabulary for the unit. After explaining DNA is the “recipe” of an organism found inside the nucleus of a cell, I told the students we would be extracting DNA from strawberries. One student immediately blurted out, “There are cells in my food! Ugh! That’s gross!” “Yes! Exactly!” I responded. Then we traced how different foods (fruits, vegetables, grains, and meats) come from living things, and since all living things are made of cells, our food is made of cells. To anyone with a strong background in science, this moment may seem simple, but to those of us who understand how fifth graders seem the world through concrete eyes, it is significant. Since that moment, I have seen this student fall in love with science. He often asks me science questions as we walk down the hall. His mom tells me how he tried a science experiment over the weekend. When I reflect on this moment, I am reminded of the many conversations I had with scientists at Bayer who told me about simple moments in their science classrooms when they fell in love with science. I can’t help but wonder if this moment will be the story my future scientist retells one day. “When I was in the fifth grade, we extracted DNA from a strawberry, and I…..”
Today’s takeaway: Never underestimate the power of little moments.