4th Graders vs. Worms

4th Graders and Worms

This past Wednesday I went a 4th grade class in nearby Elementary school, along with the rest of my EDCI 55 class. We were tasked with finding out what the 4th graders knew about a certain science topic. Being a biologist I wanted something alive. Worms were both easily available and had the EWWWW factor which I was hoping to use to engage the students.

It worked better than I could ever imagine. I brought in three types of worms, meal worms, superworms (giant sized hormonally treated mealworms), and the familiar earthworms. I started by asking where the students had seen worms before. He had mentioned that he had seen worms where there was nothing growing and in cow poop. I asked him to explain the cow poop part and he told me of a field trip of when he went to a farm. Upon seeing the mealworms he immediately mentioned that they looked like cockroaches. Time was soon flying by and nearly every students in the class was gathered around the worms and making observations and asking questions faster than I could possibly answer them.

As a class we were tasked with using process skills to evaluate student understanding. I found that the students almost immediately latched some of them, while others took more effort to incorporate. Observations were almost immediate. As soon as they saw the worms they were describing how they moved and what the were doing. Soon after the observations predications came tumbling out. Some of the more memorable ones were “I that that they are going to fight” and “think that the little one is going to grow up as big as its mother (meaning the superworm which is actually sterile and wont undergo metamorphosis into the adult stage)” Communication was more difficult between student and teacher than it was between students. I think that this was because the students either did not know what to say or wanted to say the correct answers. Once they realized that almost anything went they opened up. Measuring did not come innately, although the use of the rulers and magnifying glasses did. (they used the rulers to move the worms around, because they could not pick the mealworms of the desk with their fingers.)

I was shock by some of the questions that the students asked. One particular question was “is the superworm actually an adult mealworm?” At this point it was almost universally excepted that the superworms were adult mealworms and this question showed that the student was questioning one of his original assumptions. This is a skill that is CRITICAL in science. I was shocked that this came naturally to him. Also I was surprised at how quickly students turned to the encyclopedia for more information. They wanted to know if the worms were insects so I asked them if there was anything they could use. They initially tried to use a dictionary but soon turned to the encyclopedia because the dictionary did not have the information they were looking for.

All in all this was an enormous success. Not only was it fun to go back to a 4th grade but it showed me where my current high school students are coming from. I was also surprised by how innate some of the process skills were. Some came out naturally throughout the course of the activity while others required some coaxing. What I really hope is that the students learned as much as I did from the experience.