Practical Matters(An Appendix to "Science Teaching at Ecole Bilingue")The practical matters related to my science classes are quite various, and I can't predict what will seem important to whom. I've listed them below in rough order of the likelihood that they will interest you. Communication: I encourage students and families to call me at home when questions come up that can't wait till our usual meeting for answer -- as how to care for a hurt creature or a specimen, how to proceed with a home experiment, or whether something should be brought to class. My phone is 849-1154. It's okay to call until 10:30 p.m.; but please don't call before 10:00 a.m., unless it's about something I'll need to bring or know for a class later that day. If your child leaves me a message, please remind him or her to mention their grade and full name. Written notes may be left at the school's front desk, which also takes phone messages for me. As these are normally just put in my mailbox, please note that I will not receive them until the following week if they arrive after Tuesday morning -- for I work at EB only on Mondays and Tuesdays. On these days, any message hopeful of quick attention should ask to be delivered by the front desk to my classroom. If you have material for my class that cannot be easily brought in by your child, it may be left in care of the front desk. But it will come more directly to my attention if it is delivered to my cluttered corner of the science/art room, with a note identifying the student. Anything perishable (rather than living) should be put in the freezer in the teachers' room, with a note left in my mailbox, if it must be delivered early. Growing crystals: Our class work leaves many students interested in growing crystals at home. For most, the experiment is relatively perfunctory but sufficiently rewarding. Some pursue it further, learning patience in a practical art, to grow their own jewels or rock candy. I've prepared a detailed handout about materials and procedures. The processes are simple, but older students will profit by adult oversight and younger ones will require adult aid. Halloween: I often encourage students to put their rotting pumpkins out in the backyard, or a friendly neighbor's if necessary, to observe the interesting ecology of decay that develops over several weeks. Your help may be useful in finding an appropriate site, both socially and biologically. Moister, shadier, more-vegetated places are more productive for the experiment. Cages, tanks, aquaria: New homes for pets are expensive, and recycled ones will serve as well. I encourage students to seek them among friends and at yard sales and fleamarkets, in part for the learning involved; and to check with me first before going to a store, if they can't find what they need. I usually keep a number of used cages and tanks available, of varying sizes and conditions. Students are welcome to borrow these for short-term pets and specimens, or until they or I can locate more suitable homes. When a student wants to keep one, I may charge up to one-third of its cost in a store, or just give it, depending on its condition, what I paid, and sheer whimsy. I'm pleased when students buy them with their own money rather than their parents'. If your family has a cage or tank no longer in use, I can probably find it a grateful home. Useful supplies: Having the right materials available in advance will encourage a student's inclination to follow up class experiments at home, especially if they are designated as hers or his. For a basic kit, get pints of hydrogen peroxide and rubbing alcohol from the drugstore; fine steel wool and a copper sponge from the hardware; and a quart of white vinegar, a pound of salt, a box of baking soda, and a pound of granulated sugar from the grocery. Add several tablespoons (stainless steel only), glasses, and small bowls that you don't care about, and a stainless-steel pot of moderate size. A tweezer, an eyedropper, several single-edged razor blades (if you trust your child to use them), and tongs will also be useful. (Keep a propane torch handy if you're accustomed to using one.) Surplus sales: As I prospect surplus catalogs for materials, I sometimes come upon neat bargains related to our curriculum -- small motors, water pumps, large Fresnel lenses -- that seem worth passing on to students, at prices that any should be able to afford ($2-$7.) Such materials are in no sense required for my class, but offer interested students a chance to explore further on their own. If the material's mis-use might involve risk or significant nuisance, I require a signed note from a parent; otherwise, I just deal directly with students, asking them to bring their money by a certain deadline to be included in the mass order. Keeping track is of course a nuisance, with kids wanting in at the last moment or forgetting their money. I do manage to deliver what each orders, but I'd appreciate any help from parents in checking that students have paid for whatever they bring home. If you send money for such a purchase, please do so in cash, as small checks are another nuisance. Microscopes: As we use them often, your child may want one; it can be a window into wonder or just gather dust, depending on inclination and encouragement, and on its quality. The packaged microscope kits sold in toy stores are a cruel joke, for they promise grand power, deliver frustration, and teach children to doubt their own capacities. A small, useful scope from Russia is plastic, save for decent optics of modest power (60x), and has its own field case; it's available at some local science stores for $20-30, or through me with an instruction booklet and accessory kit. Microscopes fit for more serious use begin at $150 in my suppliers' catalogues; older instruments of better quality can sometimes be found for comparable costs through classified ads and pawnshops. I'm pleased to advise and aid in their purchase. To help in considering this, or to temporarily supplement interest at home, students may rent good microscopes from me when available, for $5/month plus $5 for the nuisance of keeping track, provided their parents will be responsible for damages (which are not to be expected save through gross abuse or accident.) Science library: To supplement the library's fine resources, I maintain a smaller, separate library of science books -- located at the entrance to my classroom -- with 250 volumes ranging widely in subject, target age, and pedagogic value. Students may borrow any book without checking it out, save for reference books with the code "R" on the cover. I identify the books as mine, rather than the school's; show students my stamp inside the front covers; and ask them to take personal responsibility for returning what they borrow within a week, or when their active interest is over, for others to use. I keep distant track, and keep the shelves full. Over the years, I've mourned the loss of more than enough wonderful works to support the conclusion that I'm just encouraging carelessness, or worse. Yet on balance, the practice seems worth continuing. For though the average rate of return resembles a slot machine's (95-98%), and the cumulative process of loss is similar, this return-rate is high enough to leave me confident that what students are gaining -- by the very process of returning the books -- outweighs the costs of their occasional negligence. I hope you will encourage your child to borrow from both this and the main libraries. If he or she brings home science books, I'd appreciate an infrequent reinforcement of his or her tendencies to be responsible for their return. Contributions of appropriate books are always welcome. Pets and live specimens: Despite mixed feelings about animal captivity, I encourage students to keep pets and specimens on appropriate bases. To justify my sense of how deeply rewarding it can be for children to grow up with dogs, let's just say that I'm nutty about them; for a sober account of what's to be gained in associating with another species so compatible in mind and spirit would take a book, and seem nutty anyway to anyone who doesn't get it. I see cats similarly, though to lesser degree, perhaps because dogs are more to my taste. But after decades of reviewing the dwindling stream of mangled bodies of birds, mice, and lizards, salvaged by my students from their cats, I must note that the vital benefits may be obtained as well by keeping an indoor cat as by subsidizing an efficient predator of the scarce life remaining in the urban ecology. Small mammals are rewarding as pets in proportion to the attention a child invests. Their behavior offers rich opportunity for learning through observation, extending the core lesson of learning to care for a warm life. Most species commonly employed as pets are similar in the husbandry they require and the learning they invite. Though a rewarding relation may be had with any, I advise students not to be too easily charmed by cuteness -- for hamsters tend to be sleepy and nasty-tempered, and guinea-pigs are not very bright and squeal readily with fright. Rabbits are more compatible and interesting, but need much more space. Mice are nice, but among all such species I find rats by far the most rewarding -- for they are the most intelligent, most curious, most affectionate, and most interested in relating to their keepers. Mushroom identification: If your child brings in mushrooms that I can definitely identify as edible, and enough remain to be worth cooking, I will send home a written notice to this effect, identifying them to genus and to species if necessary or possible. As time permits, I'll be glad to try to identify any kind of mushroom your family may wonder about, provided you won't be appalled at the frequency of my failure. For anyone who has hunted mushrooms seriously will understand how one can be so certain about certain kinds, while being so uncertain about so many more; and be reassured when I note that I rely on Aurora's magesterial tome, the standard reference for our region, and always recheck my own impressions with the book for any edible less distinctive than chanterelles and pine-spikes. The odds for identification will be better if your child brings in young, mature, and old specimens together; includes their whole bases, digging into the ground if necessary; and notes the character of the ground and the kind of the nearest tree. A spore-print may also help; to make one, de-stem a good specimen, place the cap face-down on white paper, cover it with a bowl and leave it overnight. (For art's sake, lift the cap carefully to avoid smudging the fragile print, and protect it with foil during transit to school, where spray fixative can stabilize it.) To preserve mushrooms until they're brought to class, keep them in the fridge (not the freezer). They rot rapidly in plastic bags; a paper bag with punched holes is better, and an open bowl better yet unless they're riddled with larvae. Mushroom cookery: I've prepared an introduction to mushroom cookery, from cleaning to basic recipes -- short and simple, slightly scientific in flavor -- which I distribute when mushroom kits are purchased en masse, and otherwise keep available on request. Your child should be able to follow it, probably with your help; the resulting exercise of competence is delicious and nourishing in several senses, and I hope you'll encourage and enjoy it. Such cookery complements our study most directly when students grow the mushrooms themselves; but stores now can always provide an occasion. Collecting bodies: Though I limit the number of dissections, creatures' bodies are always of interest to us, and many students are interested in bringing them in. If you want to assist your child in this when the random opportunity comes along, here's how: Trust your eyes and nose, we can't use mashed or reeking corpses. (Nor cats and dogs, as they make us all too sad.) Bodies appearing in the morning beside a familiar roadway are usually quite fresh. Keep a garbage-bag handy in the car; to bag an animal without touching it, put your hand in the bag as in a big glove, grab the tail or a foot, turn the bag inside out to enfold the whole body, and twist the top closed. Double-bag it for safety, store it in the freezer (unless your child's science class is that day), and call me at 849-1154 for directions on how to have your child bring it to school in thawed condition. If you can't abide the thought of unorthodox meat in the freezer, you can drop it off at school on Mondays or Tuesdays, or at my house otherwise (1741 Virginia, Berkeley.) Live-traps: Families bothered by wild animals in or around the house might consider live-traps before poison or a professional exterminator. I don't encourage their use simply for study, as being trapped is traumatic; but to use one as needed, successfully, is a neat experience for a student, in several ways. I have various sizes available, from mouse to raccoon, and will gladly loan them and advise their use. Summer camp: Since 1983, I've co-directed a small summer camp, with a program centered on natural science, and sessions in Big Sur, Mendocino, and the Sierras. The values and pleasure my colleagues and I find in working with children in outdoor environments are sharpened with students from our own schools, as we extend our classroom lessons to the field. More information about Camp Chrysalis appears in our annual brochure, distributed in early February via the school newsletter and in class. My references: If you'd like to know more about my teaching and perspectives, a number of my previous essays about science education -- some published, some in manuscript -- are available in the school library, or from me for nominal cost. They describe simple lessons and ornate ones, discuss pedagogy and social practice, in ways extending the review these notes accompany. I'd be pleased to have you find them interesting.
Michael Rossman
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