Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Experience teaching at the Caepe School

Just returned from TRYING to teach nutrition at the Caepe School in Anthem in Mr. Miller's class of 7th and 8th graders.

Myself and Ben, my medical student, anticipated talking about food labeling and how to read the nutrition facts on the box.

Needless to say, we all had a good time. The kids were very enthusiastic and asked, no joke, 50 + questions. I have taught in high school, college level and medical school before, but never for middle school. I will have to work on keeping the topic focused. One of the topics that one of the students asked about was "tree man." Many of the kids have seen him on the internet. Ben and I had no idea what they were talking about. When we got back to the office we looked it up and apparently this gentleman has a immune system defect that allows viral warts to go out of control. Rather interesting but I need to work on what educational info can be gained by talking about it.

Another good topic that the kids brought up was genetics and I will work with Mr. Miller to do a whole topic on Mendelian genetics. I hope I can present that in 1 hour or less.

I think the kids had to get all of their questions out and next time we can be a little more focused.

In the future, we are trying to coordinate CPR training for the kids along with First Aid.

Overall, an amazing experience, and I think I will be able to teach science in a fun and gross way. The kids did have a bunch of questions about vomit and other gross topics.

Next week, 12/17, we will revisit the food label topic. Finish it and prepare for another topic first of the year.

Really fun to get out of the office.

Bryan Glick, DO