A General Absence of Motivation

A morning like any other. Drowsy, coat laden children meander in dreading the day to come. First period, my one class that seems unexcited and utterly despondent with school, every morning. The announcements play, the pledge is muttered with hands on hearts. Then the simultaneous screech of chairs as students scootch in. I am tired too of course, sipping on my morning cup-of-joe. It is 7:25 and the darkness of the Katy sky still lingers. I take attendance and they remain sullen, half of them with heads on their tables. This is the moment I choose to ignore the general absence of motivation, in fact I reject it and insert my own reality. I take a deep breath.....tell a joke, ask a probing question. A little more focus, eyes now making their way to the front of the room. Motivation still absent. But then I pull a ball of play-doh,  wicky sticks and pipe cleaners from the makerspace and ask one simple question..."What can you create that tells me about today's topic, Genetics?"

Once I pose this question. voices start to stir, expressions come alive, motivation slowly creeps in. But alas, this has peaked their interest but has not locked them in. So after a few minutes, only a few, of twisting and pulling and shaping, I say "STOP. Now I want you to trade your artifact with someone from another table." They look at me with confusion and intrigue. "If you were actually completing the task with purpose you should have something resembling an item representing Genetics.
Lets see shall we. You have to trade in silence, do not tell them what it is supposed to be. Once you have traded I want you to finish what you believe was their intended artifact." They shuffle around the room a little more excited and lot more engaged. They begin to laugh and snicker, some worried that they do not now how to finish the artifact correctly. But the giggles subside and the motivation kicks in. They finish their creations. "Now give them back to their owners and then you will each explain what you made, or were trying to make in some cases," They laugh, now fully motivated to succeed in the task.

Some of the artifacts are clear and purposeful, strands of DNA or parts of a cell. Even some simple human figures explaining genotype and phenotype. One student has two sets of mirrored items to express homozygous and heterozygous. (two alike alleles, two different alleles. The conversation is awesome. Each sharing quickly and concisely. Then I ask them to gather around the two large tables: 16 at each. I let them decide which table to go to. They settle down in anticipation of what could be next. Committed and focused all of them are now. I say there are two main questions we need to answer first before we delve into the unit of Genetics, yes this is the hook for our lesson. "The first question is how are our traits passed on from generation to generation?" "The second, what happens when this process does not go as planned?" "Table 1 you will discuss the first question and table 2 you will discuss the second, I will put 15 minutes on the timer. At the end one spokes person will share your overall ideas into a brief answer or conclusion."

After 15 minutes of Edcamp students shared their conclusions. Now fully intrigues and motivated, I say "thank you I have learned a lot from you today. I am looking forward to you seeing if your ideas are correct. It will be up to you to discover if you are or not. I will provide you with some evidence and you will come up with your own conclusions. Are you ready to begin?" The bell rings a few minutes later. Students gather their belongings and as they are leaving I hear "What do you guys think will happen tomorrow? How are we going to discover more about Genetics? Do you think there will be labs and stuff?" It was an awesome day. Student-centered with a little guidance. They are motivated now because the task of learning has been placed in their hands. This next week is going to be fascinating- I love being a docent it gives me time to see the sights and get to know my students on a more personal level.