As I have been reimagining my curriculum over the past few years, the idea of using a scientific phenomenon to hook kids into our work has been both exciting and challenging. Today, I discuss the concept of phenomena with Tanea, Mark and Jess. We definitely had a lot of fun, so we hope you enjoy the conversation.

Show Notes:
We start this question with the goofy question: What is an area of science that you find cool, but don’t really understand the underlying mechanism of (possibly nobody knows)
Joining us from Minnesota, Mark Peterson: I ran across the idea of telescoping generations a few years ago at an NSTA conference. Aphids, reproducing asexually, have the next generation, fully formed inside them, and within that next generation is another daughter ready to form…and so on. Nature is just weird sometimes.
Joining us from Missouri is Jessica Popescu: I just learned from the book Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake that fungi mycelium transfer nutrients between plants, poisons, hormones and maybe even genetic material!
Joining us from Ohio is Tanea Hibler: I suspect that us humans don’t understand a lot of things, so this is a hard question for me. I’ll ponder a bit
Aaron: Why do we sleep? Why do we dream? What are the biological functions?

Questions Discussed on this show:
How do you define a scientific phenomenon? Do you use these in your curriculum?

Do you think that phenomena have to be something that is part of the students lives before introduction?

What is one of your favorite phenomena to engage students (I know this might be tough)?

Credits:
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Music by: https://exmagicians.bandcamp.com/
Show Notes at Lifeoftheschool.org
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