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A Modest Proposal: Scary School

December 22nd, 2009

People, especially writers, soak up vocabulary automatically when young.  It’s a slow process and you have to hear words many times for them to stick.  There are, however, exceptions.

When I was about five or six years old, I had a nightmare.  Not unsual for me.  I was already deep into Universal monster movies and loved them to death, although there were some occasional negative side effects.

I remember talking with my mother about one of these nightmares.  I explained to her about how one dream was ending and another was starting, and there was a bit in my head that said, “Coming next…The Werewolf!” along with a still picture, like what you’d see on TV or before a movie.

She told me that was called a “preview.”

And that one time was enough to learn the word.  Thanks, werewolf.

We all remember where were and what we were doing when we heard JFK was shot, when Reagan was shot, when the space shuttles exploded, when the terrorists attacked on 9/11.  Moreover, we also remember everything that was going on in moments of personal crisis, from car accidents, friend’s deaths, divorces, rapes, muggings, etc.  These are moments when our bodies give our brains extra power to act and the memories of those moments are indelible.

Happy times don’t seem to stick as well, which is too bad…for my students!

So I’m thinking that next fall, when I teach introductory astronomy again for non-majors, I might try a new educational approach.  There are particular parts of the class that students find especially challenging.  A few of these are not conceptually difficult, just a little boring as normally presented.  So, maybe they should not be normally presented.

Here are a few ideas:

There is the onion-skin model of stellar structure, but onion is a bit boring.  How about a brain?  How about pulling one out and stripping it to the core, layer by layer?

How about making a key point about cosmology, and faking a heart attack in front of the class?  Heat death of the universe anyone?

How about demonstrating temperatures on a distant outer planet by doing the bit with smashing the fake hand after dipping it into liquid nitrogen?

Killing the lights and paying a student to scream to emphasize things that will definitely be on the midterm.

Hiring theater majors to dress up as zombies and shamble back and forth outside the classroom (especially after the brain layer demonstration, probably for the topic of the death of stars).

Demonstrating stellar nucleosynthesis by lighting various combustibles on fire (while avoiding setting off the fire alarm the way a chemistry prof did this past semester).

Showing graphic illustrations about what happens if you’re exposed to the vaccuum of space (NOT! — I’d use the head exploding scene from OUTLAND and then explain that this is not how it works in reality).

Tell everyone the first day of class that their pets will die if they don’t get an A.  Stupid and mean, but I bet it would make a few people study a little longer, especially the superstitious ones who need to work harder in science classes.

Other suggestions?  Preferably ones that I could actually use?  A few of these above might get me in trouble, and get me a bad reputation (and not a good bad reputation).

I probably won’t do any of these, but sometimes this sort of brainstorming leads to truly memorable lesson or two…

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7 Responses to “A Modest Proposal: Scary School”

  1. SMD Says:
    December 22nd, 2009 at 5:46 pm

    Can I take your class? I’m an English grad, but I also love stars and wanted to be an astronomer for the longest time before I found out that, hey, I might actually be good at all this English stuff.

    Honestly, I think a lot of teachers should approach subjects like this from very strange directions. I had an astronomy teacher that had the most horrible monotone voice (way back when). He tried to make the subject matter relevant to us by talking about galaxies colliding using terms like “hood.” Needless to say, it didn’t work. But if he had started having heart attacks in class…I might have been awake more often.

    I still learned a lot in that astronomy class, though. I love me some stars…even talked to the teacher about what I needed to know about planets around binary star systems. He seemed excited about that, since I was writing a story about it at the time.

    Anywho. Do it!

  2. Mike Brotherton Says:
    December 22nd, 2009 at 6:34 pm

    You know, I do remember thinking back in college how incredibly boring most physics problems were. I mean, really, really boring. I wanted to write a book of problems called “101 violent physics problems” in which people, animals, cars, buildings, planes, etc., usually wound up smashed to pieces. I still think this would be a big hit, although probably wouldn’t help efforts to recruit more females into physics.

  3. Craig Says:
    December 22nd, 2009 at 10:53 pm

    “We all remember where were and what we were doing when we heard JFK was shot, when Reagan was shot, when the space shuttles exploded, when the terrorists attacked on 9/11. Moreover, we also remember everything that was going on in moments of personal crisis, from car accidents, friend’s deaths, divorces, rapes, muggings, etc. These are moments when our bodies give our brains extra power to act and the memories of those moments are indelible.”

    Actually, no, they aren’t. This has been studied; search for “flashbulb memories” on Google Scholar if you’re interested. Yes, many people have vivid memories of what they were doing when dramatic events occurred, but those memories are no more accurate than any other.

    That said, I use vaguely similar stuff in my own classes. A standard question to the class in my neuroanatomy tutes is along the lines of “so, if you wanted to remove someone’s ability to speak, where in the head should you shoot them?”.

    I like the brain idea (they do grab attention; I never have any problem with students drifting off when I’m speaking with a dripping human brain in one hand…), but you’d have trouble getting the anatomy labs to give you a human one; they’re a bit of a precious resource. And, although there’s a clear distinction between cortical and subcortical areas, there isn’t any clear “layered” distinction beyond that. Just lots of funny-shaped structures all tangled around each other.

    And for the liquid nitrogen, see Mythbusters. If it’s ballistics gel or similar, you’ll need to leave that fake hand in the chill for at least five minutes or so if you want a satisfying smash. Real flesh takes even longer, if it’s human-scaled; the connective tissue gives it smash-resistance.

  4. Mike Brotherton Says:
    December 22nd, 2009 at 11:14 pm

    Yeah, I’ve seen some of the work on the traumatic memory stuff. My point is more that people remember these events and many surrounding details, while any given random lecture/day/event may have little to nothing in the future. The startling event seems to give the brain a point of reference that boring moments rarely provide.

    Thanks for the other comments/suggestions. I do have a brain gelatin mold, although laying down different colors may be beyond my ability. Also, I suppose the hand could be prefrozen, although I’d have to be careful pulling it out!

  5. Jonathan Fugitt Says:
    December 23rd, 2009 at 11:59 am

    I had a teacher in high school that one day dressed up as a bum, another day brought in a real cow tongue from the butcher shop (not bloody but for sure gross). He used to get quite emotional to the point of bringing himself to tears. He once kicked the wall so hard it dented in the sheet rock. His class was financial management (probably would’ve been a major snore but he made it really lively.) With the cow tongue he tossed it at people if he called on them & they didn’t know the answer. the thing weighed 5 pounds or so & it hit with some force. It wasn’t so much linking the outrageous behavior to the lesson as it was getting peoples attention. Once he had their attention he could then present the lesson & people were focused. He would yell & scream & I remember lots of what he said. At the end of the year he brought in fresh french bread with butter for everyone. Unorthodox but for sure memorable. Here is his facebook account: http://www.facebook.com/people/Fred-Hagemeister/602319364 You might want to ask him for ideas. He seemed to have lots of them.

  6. Mike Brotherton Says:
    December 23rd, 2009 at 4:13 pm

    Hey Jonathan, did students like the guy or did they all think he was a giant weirdo? I am living in a small town here…

  7. Galen Mellie Says:
    May 9th, 2010 at 10:16 pm

    Extremely interesting post thanks for sharing I have added your site to my bookmarks and will be back :) By the way this is a little off subject but I really like your sites layout.

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