Today I had students use oreos to carve out representations of the different moon phases. It was fun (mostly for me), and very messy for them. They did enjoy getting to eat the oreos afterwards, even though it was a little gross by that point.
Having smaller SDC classes is good for activities like these, because the cost is not that much. I imagine if I tried doing this in a 40-person regular science class, multipled by 6 periods, I would be buying mountains and mountains of Oreos. Definitely not something within the budget of a future houseowner, teacher, and future parent.
Which of course comes to bear the question of why it’s so hard for teachers to get things funded for use in their classroom. Even department funds at most schools are very limited. There’s usually a long procedure or process for getting supplies that are not on the district warehouse as well – leading to most teachers either buying things out of their own pocket, or just resisting the urge to try something new altogether.
Clearly, educational priorities and laws are never set by teachers themselves, but instead legislators who have probably never ever set foot in a classroom or taught themselves. Such sadness that politics dictates what will happen in our schools for years to come.
