Jack Chase
Tuesday 27th August 2002, 21:57
Couldn't quite decide which area to post this but a message I was reading earlier this evening put me in mind of a lesson I was delivering to secondary school science students on Food Webs a few years ago. (I normally teach maths but as is usual you end up teaching all sorts)!
Anyway, I had been putting to good use some RSPB education resources on food webs when one student screamed and leapt out of her chair (or vica versa - can't be sure now). Now as a teacher who prides herself on 'running a tight ship' I recognised this as a severely abnormal action and had seen similar only once or twice previously - clearly she had spotted a massive member of the spider family - or so I thought. I moved towards her to reassure her that no known UK species was man eating (or even sucking) but saw no evidence on or about her person of said spider.
I then observed that she was in fact gazing out of the window wearing a horror struck visage. What abomination could there be out there???? I took it upon myself to gaze out of the offending window and to my surprise, there pinned on the ground was a blackbird. What had pinned it - a sparrowhawk. The girl had obviously witness the streak of their joint descent out of the corner of her eye (or so I choose to believe as the alternative wa she was gazing out of the class not paying a blind bit of notice).
I took the opportunity to gather the rest of the class round the windows to illustrate food webs in action! (With a side salad of the hazards of DDT poisoning thrown in for good measure). The good (or bad) end of the event, depending on your viewpoint, was that the sparrowhawk got shy and released the blackbird to sing another day.
I think to this day there are one or two ex-students who still believe I arranged the display just for their benefit - and who am I to disillusion them!
I taught the same material several times more and each time some members of the class spent much of the time looking out of the window! It was never repeated though!
Jack ;)
Anyway, I had been putting to good use some RSPB education resources on food webs when one student screamed and leapt out of her chair (or vica versa - can't be sure now). Now as a teacher who prides herself on 'running a tight ship' I recognised this as a severely abnormal action and had seen similar only once or twice previously - clearly she had spotted a massive member of the spider family - or so I thought. I moved towards her to reassure her that no known UK species was man eating (or even sucking) but saw no evidence on or about her person of said spider.
I then observed that she was in fact gazing out of the window wearing a horror struck visage. What abomination could there be out there???? I took it upon myself to gaze out of the offending window and to my surprise, there pinned on the ground was a blackbird. What had pinned it - a sparrowhawk. The girl had obviously witness the streak of their joint descent out of the corner of her eye (or so I choose to believe as the alternative wa she was gazing out of the class not paying a blind bit of notice).
I took the opportunity to gather the rest of the class round the windows to illustrate food webs in action! (With a side salad of the hazards of DDT poisoning thrown in for good measure). The good (or bad) end of the event, depending on your viewpoint, was that the sparrowhawk got shy and released the blackbird to sing another day.
I think to this day there are one or two ex-students who still believe I arranged the display just for their benefit - and who am I to disillusion them!
I taught the same material several times more and each time some members of the class spent much of the time looking out of the window! It was never repeated though!
Jack ;)