The following object lesson is compliments of my professor friend Cindy.
It always gives me great pleasure to milk off the talents and imagination of other people. And this week I was able to do so from a very talented friend named Cindy. She teaches medical courses at a college in northern Utah. Even though the topic of this object lesson is medical in nature, the principles of teaching with normal objects from around the house can be implemented in any teaching environment. I hope the following can be of use to family counselors, family devotionals, and family home evenings.
Professor Cindy was telling me how she use objects around the house to teach about the components of a cell. From her statements I shall endeavor to duplicate some of her technique. Any medical misspellings or misuse is my fault since I was listening to her verbally. I could say any bobos are on her but she might read this and then I’ll really be in trouble.
– One raw egg cracked open and put into a clear bowl represents the average cell.
– The outer, hard-shell of the egg represents the membrane.
– Kidney beans represent the < mitochondria>, which is the powerhouse of the cell.
– A bag of dried bean soup with a wide selection of beans represents other components
– Such as split peas as the <vesicles>
– Use bright green string for Golgi body.
– Zigzag card/trim represent the (silver rickrack) for <endoplasmic reticulum>
– Chunks of dry spaghetti represent <microtubules>
– She included an extra bean to represent a free radical or damage cell that would later become cancer.
She says the original concept was described by a cookie model and that she simply transferred all the elements into the egg with additional accessories
And just as little extra here is another quick object lesson: She uses golf balls for the class to learn the components of the eye. In advance to the class, Cindy will saw golf balls in half, and then connect them with one ace bandage to act as a hinge to open and close the split eye. She then assigns to students to illustrate the outside and interior components of the eye.
Both of these examples are a wonderful way of teaching complex principles of medicine through objects from around the house. I’m going to have to milk this woman’s brain more frequently.
She gave me a third point of wonderful advice. There is a website where people are posting their Quiz cards for various topics in college. It’s called: quizlit.com. So before you write up your own quiz cards for a college topic or high school or other lookup on the site and see which already up there. Or if there isn’t a set and you create your own and you type them up, then why not share them on the site. The site also provides extra blank cards so that you can create your quiz cards on-site more conveniently.
My goodness, three ideas on the same day, I think I’ll retire.
If you have some object lessons that have been useful in teaching scientific or medical or other topics, please feel free to submit them in the comment section this blog. Or if you find a useful site that’s been good for students in some way, please feel free to share that. Thanks.
