10 April 2002
Woodward Elementary School Service Learning Project
Kalamazoo College has an ongoing relationship with Woodward Elementary School (a science and technology magnet school) to help develop curricular activities. Through my Genetics course, I had the opportunity to develop and teach an activity for the school as part of my course requirements. The activity was developed with Jennifer Christy. We emphasized hands-on skills, and focused on basic genetic concepts. At the elementary level, one of the Michigan science benchmarks is "Give evidence that characteristics are passed on from parents to young." For example, one question on the state test asked, "Which of the following characteristics is least likely to be passed on from mother to daughter: hair color, eye color, favorite color, or skin color?" Although this question seems obvious to us, many of the students chose "skin color." Our goal was to help students understand this benchmark - focusing not on the mechanism of inheritance so much as the concept.