Tune in next time..

Do you remember the old time radio shows? You know, the Fibber McGee and Molly or Abbott and Costello type of stuff? Well it has been my pleasure to introduce Cornflower to these gems of performance over the last few months. It is always a happy event when a teachable moment intersects with a newly discovered pleasure and in this instance it was the intersecting of Adventures in Science and old time radio shows.

As a capstone to their study of the Kingdom Protista for Science Club, Cornflower and her compatriots each had to: "adopt" a protist, research and create a model of their chosen protist. After the AIS members presented their models and their research for science class, as a treat, I brought in a recording of a Fibber McGee and Molly show for them to listen too. They enjoyed it! And then for homework they were given a questionaire to answer as if they themselves were the protist they had adopted and staying true to the scientific facts that we had learned. Poppy, Caddie, Scarlett and Pippin were really excited by the prospect! When they brought in their completed questionaires, we utilized their answers to create a radio show script.

The show "Kingdom Protista" was hosted by the much-put-upon interviewer, "Mike Croscope" and featured a Rocky Balboa-like "Antonio Amoeba", a upbeat chatty Patty Paramecium, a hoity-toity "Lena Euglena" and an invasive Rodney Dangerfield meets Lennie and Squeaky bacteria named "Jimmy the Germ."

The four of them enjoyed it so much that they also "took the show on the road" by performing it live at the For the Children's Sake Academic Presentation Day in November.

The children were amazing in their character development and oral performance. It was so much fun and I found it very successful in bringing to the fore what they had learned and I think it will help them retain better the material. All school should be this much fun!