Real-Life Communication
You are the host of a television program on marine life that is
viewed by Grade 7 students in a large number of elementary schools. You have
just shown a film sequence about sea anemones. As the students watched underwater
footage of the watery creatures, you explained that anemones, jellyfish and
coral are all part of the family called cnidarians. You added that all cnidarians
have stinging tentacles.
When preparing your script for this segment,
you took the advice of experts on virtual teaching: keep each section to three
or four main points, and rely on lots of visual aids.
Once the film
ends, you go over to the whiteboard and draw two pictures of cnidarians to
demonstrate their different body shapes. You finish by explaining that --
unlike other cnidarians such as some jellyfish -- sea anemone stings are not
harmful to humans.
At the end of each show you leave time for the students
to ask questions about the films they have seen. A student asks you why certain
sea anemones behave more aggressively than others. You think carefully before
responding.
The simple answer is that in a colony, there are both breeding
anemones and sparring anemones. The job of the sparring anemones is to defend
the colony. You could elaborate by saying that natural selection has allowed
certain fighting strategies to persist in sea anemones while others have been
eliminated.
This topic interests you, since you've recently read
about a research scientist who is comparing the battle techniques of sea anemones
with famous conquerors to see if they use similar strategies.
But at
this age, even the best students will have only a vague idea that natural
selection has something to do with the "survival of the fittest," while others
won't understand the concept at all.
You don't have time
to provide a detailed explanation of natural selection, and even if you did,
you couldn't be sure the majority of students would understand. It would
only lead to more questions, and you want to move on to the topics that were
covered in the other film segments.
The students are waiting. You have
to frame a response that is short, correct, and easily understood. What do
you say?