Do You Smell That? "Gross" Teachable Moments

What wonderful model of diffusion can send your students into gales of laughter, can be released from anywhere in the classroom, and can be supplied by each student around 15 times a day? If you haven’t guessed yet, contemplate these two literary greats: The Gas We Pass by Shinta Cho and Walter the Farting Dog by William Kotzwinkle and Glenn Murray. Flatulence is hardly a topic you think about when planning what to teach. It’s a topic that can come up…er…unexpectedly, and this week’s featured resources will help prepare you to take full advantage of this and other gross topics that may come up unexpectedly in your classroom.

Creative teachers can cover “gross” topics like bodily functions during class time by carefully choosing an angle that uses that topic to teach the concepts you want to teach anyway. One resourceful teacher used the topic to fuel a scientific investigation that taught students to use observation skills and draw conclusions. The students kept a journal of each time they passed gas in a week. They collected the data in a slotted box for privacy. Phew! They calculated a class average and then redid the test after eating beans, broccoli, or another food that tends to produce gas. They made comparisons and drew conclusions as a class answering the question, “Are beans really the musical fruit?”

Another innovative teacher in West Virginia earned a $2000 grant for using an unexpected gas release in her classroom as an introduction to a debate. Her students researched how flatulence relates to health. They stood up in front of their school to debate whether or not people should be allowed to pass gas whenever or wherever they want. Besides learning about the “gross” topic of gas, they learned about research and debate and presented their arguments to a large audience.

Those were just a couple of the “gassy” ideas I found online. This topic could easily be expanded to a larger study of the digestive system and the human body. If you search “digestive system” on the Gateway, you will have a list of 16 resources you can narrow down by grade level, subject, and activity type. One PE Central activity does a really nice job of getting the kids actively involved as they represent food traveling through a giant “Gross Digestive System.” I love the idea of kids jumping around as they are chewed before crawling through the tunnels of the esophagus and the intestines! If you want to include even more yucky bodily functions in your study, visit Wendell the Worm on the Yuckiest Site on the Internet (from Discovery Kids) to learn all about Your Gross and Cool Body. This site lets kids click through all different facts, pictures, and sound bites of the strange and unique functions in the human body. I think I had as much as the kids with this one.

Grossology from Sylvia Branzei and Jack Keely has books and museum exhibits that wow kids (and adults) with gross and weird science topics. I visited a museum with a traveling Grossology exhibit, and it was a lot of fun. You can inspire students in your classroom with your own Grossology activities. Grossology in the Classrom is a nice set of activities based on the books and museum exhibits. From dissecting owl pellets to investigating how stomach acid digests food, this set of activities can help you cover all kinds of gross topics.

Read Joann’s column (linked below) for more yucky discussion and get more gross ideas all week on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Like always, we would love to hear about the cool things you are doing in your classroom. If you are stumped on how to cover any particular topic, let us know. Joann and I are usually up for a challenge!