I personally believe this ban is ridiculous. Everyone I talked to seems to agree with me. By banning pop(I will never ever refer to pop as soda) in schools the school board seemed to show how uneducated they are on the subject. The argument is in terms of how unhealthy pop is and yet diet pop is still allowed? Diet pop has been proven to be worse for you than regular, so it seems to me that those in charge are just going off of an uneducated opinion. I can't understand this decision at all, but I digress.
There are a few ways that I could use this topic to teach students my subject of biology. One way for instance would be group studies. This is where I split the students into groups and they do research and present their findings in the form of a presentation to the class, or they just write a research paper and show me what they've learned. I would of course make them relate this to the subject of biology, and would make them find research that gives scientific backing for their findings. For instance, in their research they'd find out about what is in the different pops and what about it is unhealthy and how this is related to the obesity problem in America.
Another way to go about this would be a debate in which half the class picks one topic then prepares for this debate for a day and debates it out later. I could use this opportunity to teach them to research or I just could provide the research so that they can focus on interpreting scientific research. The way I'd set the debate up is for instance in a class of 20 I'd split the groups into four teams of five people and two of the groups would be pro pop and two would be against it. I'd allow teams time to review the subject and then discuss amongst themselves during class. Then the two pros and two teams anti pop groups with meet and discuss their group findings, and then the debate would unfold.
There are of course other ways to incorporate this but these were the first two that came to mind. If I wanted to let the kids use technology then it would be useful to have them research this topic online. They could communicate their findings to me through email and see if they need any improving at all.
I really like how you thought to expand the soda (I will always call it soda) ban to beyond the scientific world! I think that the students will get a lot out of not only being able to do the scientific research but also applying it to a political setting. And, I feel like a lot of scientists would be called upon to share their findings on the health of soda in a political debate (and for other political health debates as well) and I think it's great that you would expose possible biologists to how they could use their field of study outside of a laboratory.
ReplyDeleteI love your two ideas about how to use the “soda” ban for the students to research what about “soda” is bad for us and the debate. So far, I haven’t read an idea on this topic that I do not like. It is amazing to see just how many ways this subject can be used to teach a lesson in many disciplines. When we were first asked to do this assignment my mind drew a blank initially on how to apply it to a lesson. The first thing that popped into my head thereafter was a statistical approach.
ReplyDeleteI used the quotes when referencing “soda” because it feels so weird using that term. Like you, the appropriate reference to the beverage should be “pop” ☺.
Nice to know there's another pop supporter amongst us! I personally have no time to look up the results myself of how bad pop is for you, but I have heard from one of my former biology professors that diet is actually worse for you. This stuff is interesting, and I agree that it's pretty cool how many ways you can use something like this to teach students. Thanks for your comments.
DeleteDefinitely agree with you on the stupidity of this ban! It's so comical that people make these bans without considering that diet pop has a lot of health implications too. Honestly, I really like learning about health and everything I have read said that if you really want a pop, you are way better off indulging in the sugaryness of a Coke instead of putting the diet pop into your system.
ReplyDeleteHowever, back to the soda ban in the classroom, I also said that this would be a great way to get a healthy debate going! When I was in high school, we did some debates, and I think that regardless of what subject you are teaching, it is a great way for students to get some practice critical thinking, especially if the teacher picks what side they will be taking. This way, the students have to learn how to argue a side instead of just picking the side that they agree with. The skills learned from debating are awesome I think, and pretty endless. I think the research connection is cool also. I'm an English teacher, but I think this would be a great activity for a bio class for students to get some scientific writing experience in. You can never get enough writing practice in high school! :)
Why is Lauren calling pop soda? She is from Michigan and must adhere to our ways. Is she perhaps ashamed of her roots?
ReplyDeleteI am glad this article provoked so much emotion. I am not a huge fan of the ban either, but for numerous other reasons. I hate the idea of government controlling what its citizens can and cannot because they feel they have to save us from ourselves. Is diet pop actually worse for you though? I always avoid anything that has some artificial sweetener because I feel it's just a matter of time before they discover it causes cancer. I have heard that people who drink diet pop actually become fatter than those drinking regular, but I do not know the details of that study.
Anyways I was interested to see your take on the subject from a scientific perspective after I have talked about it in a political perspective.