Once upon a time in my
teaching days, we were warned not to let students lead us down the
"rabbit trails" with diversions and stories that kept us from making our
points as we explored topics like ecology, aquatic biology, mammology,
and ornithology. And yet on those time when I chose to let a student
lead us down some trails it proved to be an opportunity to enrich the
lesson and provided a chance to bring more relevant information to those
students.
The
internet seems custom made for rabbit trail wandering. From random
videos, suggestions by our friends on Facebook, to Wikipedia articles to
following links from one page to another. We could get quite lost from
our original intent, but we could also end up rather enriched by the
experience.
A sample from two such recent wanderings:
first
question: can you make chocolate bread that is a yeast bread and not a
quick bread. (muffins and such quick breads are ok but not my favorite. I
want something that is chewier.) I found a recipe and from there I
learned about making my own bread flour and then I went on to find
information on some ancient types of wheat, such as faro and spelt. I
had no idea that wheat came in so many varieties and that some of them
are neolithic.
And another:
following
a link on making geodesic domes to videos and making 3 dimensional
spheroids from aluminum cans and some origami techniques. I may have to
try some of them just to see if they come out as awesome as they looked
in the videos. from there I found videos on paper mache from egg cartons
and creating bowls from paper. When I came up for air I Had lost a
couple hours of my day, but gained lots of ideas that are now in my idea
book, so when I get some aluminum cans and tins snips and free time I
know what I am doing next. and egg cartons I am gonna start saving those
too.
I can hardly wait to see what I find down the next rabbit hole.
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