Today I took my students on one of their all time favorite field trips of the year which, of course, happens to be my least favorite field trip of the entire year. This is a field trip where we traipse around town visiting three local farms. This trip gives our students the opportunity to visit three different types of farms and learn about what they do and how they work. This field trip is put on by the local FFA high school students, many of whom do a wonderful job.
This trip can be incredibly educational, especially for those students who have never had the opportunity to visit a farm before. Today became an interesting day, as the farm field trip typically does.
Today our students had the unique opportunity to see a calf being born. This is an incredibly amazing experience that most students will never have the opportunity to witness. In fact, it is an opportunity that most adults will never have the opportunity to witness.
However ... this does open up a massive door to questioning about how the birth process works. And because my students are inquisitive nine and ten year olds ... it absolutely bridges the gap that leads to how the human birth process works.
Imagine this...
I approach the dry dock station with a group of 12 fourth graders. Here we can easily see that one heifer is secluded from the others in the dry dock. The high schooler tells us that she is in labor right now. She asks questions of our students such as: how long do you think the gestation period is and how many calves can a heifer have?
When students failed to answer the gestation period correctly with responses such as 3 months, 1 year, 15 months and 6 months she explained that it was the same as human births. Finally, students were able to respond that it was a 9 month gestation period as they stare with wide open eyes at the heifer who know has legs protruding from ... well ... you know where. Their eyes are saucers as they try to take it all in.
Excited whispers abound. Are those legs? What is happening? Why is she making that noise? Is she really just eating?
As we are ushered quickly to our next station, my students surround me and ask several questions about how long labor can last and if it is the same for human babies. They ask questions about what the purpose of a bull or steer cow is and how the heifer gets pregnant. They ask if this is a similar process to a human baby? Then they ask about the process of labor and if it is similar to human labor.
Now, it is my turn to have eyes as big as saucers. I was a deer standing frozen in the headlights of a semi barreling down the highway. How do you answer such questions when your general mantra is to avoid the 'how babies are born' question like the plague?
To that, I have no answer. I responded with a, "Make sure you are listening to the presenter" and prayed continuously that they don't remember their questions tomorrow!
At the end of the day, a beautiful calf was born to the amazement of all students on the trip.
This trip can be incredibly educational, especially for those students who have never had the opportunity to visit a farm before. Today became an interesting day, as the farm field trip typically does.
Today our students had the unique opportunity to see a calf being born. This is an incredibly amazing experience that most students will never have the opportunity to witness. In fact, it is an opportunity that most adults will never have the opportunity to witness.
However ... this does open up a massive door to questioning about how the birth process works. And because my students are inquisitive nine and ten year olds ... it absolutely bridges the gap that leads to how the human birth process works.
Imagine this...
I approach the dry dock station with a group of 12 fourth graders. Here we can easily see that one heifer is secluded from the others in the dry dock. The high schooler tells us that she is in labor right now. She asks questions of our students such as: how long do you think the gestation period is and how many calves can a heifer have?
When students failed to answer the gestation period correctly with responses such as 3 months, 1 year, 15 months and 6 months she explained that it was the same as human births. Finally, students were able to respond that it was a 9 month gestation period as they stare with wide open eyes at the heifer who know has legs protruding from ... well ... you know where. Their eyes are saucers as they try to take it all in.
Excited whispers abound. Are those legs? What is happening? Why is she making that noise? Is she really just eating?
As we are ushered quickly to our next station, my students surround me and ask several questions about how long labor can last and if it is the same for human babies. They ask questions about what the purpose of a bull or steer cow is and how the heifer gets pregnant. They ask if this is a similar process to a human baby? Then they ask about the process of labor and if it is similar to human labor.
Now, it is my turn to have eyes as big as saucers. I was a deer standing frozen in the headlights of a semi barreling down the highway. How do you answer such questions when your general mantra is to avoid the 'how babies are born' question like the plague?
To that, I have no answer. I responded with a, "Make sure you are listening to the presenter" and prayed continuously that they don't remember their questions tomorrow!
At the end of the day, a beautiful calf was born to the amazement of all students on the trip.
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