2024 RegenPGC Research Education for Teachers participant James Wenman (Holy Trinity School, Waverly, Iowa) invited RegenPGC Collaborator Patrick Galland and Graduate Student Rickiel Franklin to his 4th grade class. We are unsure who learned the most, but Patrick had this to say about this unique experience.
“The students really seemed to have a blast, Rickiel and I had fun, too. We just went over our background (educational and personal) and went over the basics of how experiments progress through and what we hope to gain from them.
We then spent a good chunk of time reviewing Rickiel’s experiment (the one James worked on the most) and related the themes to real-world examples. James came up with my favorite; he compared the competition of PGC/corn over nutrients, water, and light to the kids with their siblings around the dinner table fighting over food. It got a good laugh out of everyone and was a very apt analogy. The biggest struggle for me was how to appropriately discuss topics in a way that was engaging and digestible to 4th graders, but James did an excellent job facilitating that. The kids were a pleasure, and I’m happy to help however I can.”
