Every year the Black Death marches into my history classroom and wrecks havoc on unsuspecting seventh graders. Europe's privileged aristocrats and simple peasants fall equal prey to the disease. It is A.D. 1347 and there is no mercy in devastation. Primary source accounts give voice to the long dead gasps of troubled souls but do little to uncover the secret slayer of millions. History tells of the hysteria. It is not until the 1800s that science determines the twin culprits, a flea mounted on the back of a black rat. The peasants who survived the Black Death left the lands of feudal lords for "work for hire" wages. Two formidable conspirators, an adaptable rat and an infected oriental rat flea, killed off at least one-third of Europe and collapsed the feudal system. A tiny insect changed the course of history.
As a history-social science teacher, each year I designed teaching activities that made the Black Death palpable. But that little flea bothered me. What qualities did the flea have that made it a viable host for the disease? How could a small insect carry such a virulent pathogen? Are there infected fleas today that harbor the pathogens to cause another plague? What unique attributes did the flea have that made it a durable vector of toxins? Looking at a map of Europe, I wondered about the different geographic and climatic conditions but it was an enlarged picture of a flea that stalked my thoughts. I needed to know more about this insect.
Asking questions is the natural process in determining understanding. Questions personalize knowledge, knitting fragments of information into a pattern of meaning making learning accessible and exciting. It creates a dynamic, fuels curiosity, and begs for resolution. A good question carries the potential for new discovery. It ignites learning.
What do you remember about entomology? Well, if you remember anything you have started ahead of me. Identifying, describing, and naming things by assigning them to particular groups is taxonomy. I needed to be able to interpret taxonomy to be able to put a name on the suspect. The Order Siphonaptera is composed of many Genuses of fleas. The devastator turned out to be the species cheopis.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Family: Pulicidae
Order: Siphonaptera
Genus: Xenopsylla
Species:
Ctenocephalides canis (dog flea),
Ctenocephalides felis (cat flea)
Pulex irritans (human flea)
Echidnophaga gallinacea (sticktight flea)
Spilopsyllus cuniculi (European Rabbit Flea)
Xenopsylla cheopis (Oriental Rat Flea)
The Black Death, also known as the Bubonic Plague, is caused by a bacillus, Yersinia pestis. The bacteria is a gram negative rod shaped bacteria. A flea that bites a host infected with Y. pestis will become infected itself when bacteria divides and fills the proventriculus. (The proventriculus is located at the end of the esophagus. It is a filterlike arrangement of seven circlets of spines surrounding a narrow passage into the stomach. There's nothing like it in mammals.) Bacteria grows and multiplies in the stomach and the proventriculus. Eventually the bacteria can grow to such an extent that it blocks the proventriculus and prevents the flea from ingesting its blood meal. The starving flea then goes from host to host trying to gain nutrition until it starves to death. It will leave a dead rat to find other live hosts, including humans or pets. The flea is a vector because it transmits the bacteria to different hosts upon contact. American prairie dogs are known to be infected with the bacillus, Yersinia pestis.
| Flea drinks rat blood that carries the bacteria. | --- » | Bacteria multiply in flea's gut. |
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| Human is infected. | ||
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| Flea bites human, regurgitates blood into open wound. | «--- | Gut clogged with bacteria. |
I had only learned the name of the culprit and identified the weapon of destruction. Still I had many questions that were unanswered. Yet, I made an unexpected important discovery. The historian and the scientist have a great deal in common. We both start with questions, employ a process of discovery and examination, which in turn raises more questions.
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Could it be that insects had played a beneficial role in history as well? The answer was all too obvious. Yes. But where was the evidence? What had these seemly small and insignificant creatures done to benefit humans? The mythology of ancient Egypt pointed the way. The behavior of Scarabaeus sacer, the sacred dung beetle of ancient Egypt who rolled round pellets from east to west, gave explanation for the rising and setting sun. Scarabaeus sacer is celebrated in ancient Egyptian mythology and art. The industrious ant is celebrated in parables. Certainly the honey bee has been an important contributor. Even the homeowner's dreaded termite is very important in tropical ecosystems. Termites are probably the most important animals contributing to the decomposition processes. Also, they have a positive effect on soil fertility. This whole idea, insects-history-science, deserved more investigation. It seemed history had overlooked a prime player in the environment.
The California Framework and Standards for seventh grade is "World History and Geography." (The Black Death is in Standard 5A, Era 5 of the National Standards for World History.) It is an expansive curriculum that begins at the fall of the Roman Empire and stretches to the collapse of medieval Japan (1863) while touching eleven medieval civilizations on five continents. For the wide-eyed seventh grader who isn't always awake during first period, it is a mind-boggling parade of exotic places, distant times, and people. The curriculum is sequential and chronological and requires a masterful hand in time management. Adding one more player to this cast of characters wasn't the answer. Highlighting the intersections of history-insects-science was the answer. Classroom activities could be built to offer critical analysis skills and content information necessary for an integrated history-science investigation without sacrificing time. The place to start was to have students create questions about insects. Resolving the question would act to highlight the insects role in history.
Investigation requires resources but local libraries were not swelled with books on entomology. The vast array of information on the Internet and digital resources offered a viable option. An extension grant for the California Middle Schools Demonstration Project brought six computers and software into my classroom. A grant from the Fremont Unified School District bought computer tables, chairs, printers, and scanners. With the hardware in place, I quickly realized the shortcomings of my technical expertise. My role as instructor would shift from teacher to facilitator. Like any good coach, I could spot talent and it was clearly evident that some of my students knew more about computer technology and software than I did. This condition handicapped me throughout the first year of operation. I would rely on a student to teach me and in turn teach others. I decided I wanted my students to experience the elementary stages of creating an individual or small group digital project. I had never built a Web site before and I knew limited HTML code. I had two 12 year old students who were as excited about this possibility as I was. Ben Jackson and Kevin Redgrave wanted to enter the Digital Competition for California's History Day. It would be a steep learning curve for all of us. Their enthusiasm spawned others. Some students attempted small Web sites while others used PowerPoint or Publisher to create a digital project. My attention to documentation and adherence to a sound research process coupled with the growing digital knowledge of my two lead students.
Setting the Bar High
To guide research and investigation, I introduced a four-step process to guide students. The four broad steps are: capturing information, analyzing information, compiling information, and communicating information. Students determined key words in their question and created four smaller sub-questions (not to exceed four).
Step #1 Capturing Information
- Students began reading information using the Internet, digital resources, books, science and history magazines (ODYSSEYTM and CALLIOPE ®). The test of authority in using Internet sources lay with information captured from university and research sites so students learned to scrutinize the home page URL and check source information. In addition, experts were contacted through e-mail and phone interviews. If possible, the insect was observed using the Intel Play QX3 computer microscope. In all cases, documentation of text and graphic sources was demanded.
- Students were focused in culling through information to analyze and select relevant information pieces that had potential in resolving the question. Some of this information came from observation or experimentation. Sometimes experts in different locations were in conflict or expressed different views on the same topic. A working understanding of taxonomy was tested through the analysis process. At the university level there are some variations in taxonomic interpretation which can be confusing.
- Students compiled information and matched text with graphics. E-mails were sent requesting permission for graphics. The project leader of the writing team, the graphics editor, and I worked together to integrate art, science, and history. Original insect cartoons were drawn to pace the reader in the digital project. The draft of the project was submitted to a scientist and / or a historian for critique.
- Students completed a paste-up of the page or document, complete with text and graphics (documented by permissions). Upon approval, the paste-up page was turned into a "story board" of pictures and text and then converted to a digital project.
"The Call" from the Smithsonian Museum
The phone rang in the classroom. Mrs. Virginia Power from the Smithsonian Museum, National Museum of Natural History, would be visiting the San Francisco Bay Area and she wondered if she might stop by my classroom to meet the boys who had created the "Cobblestone Roads and Salty Sea Lanes" winning Web site. She was impressed with their work and wanted to discuss the possibility of my class building a Web site for the Smithsonian BugFest 1999 celebration of entomology at the Smithsonian. The classroom was now abuzz with a new energy. At the heart of the transformation of my history class was a shift to engaging questions and utilizing technology to search worldwide for answers in an authentic research project. I was sure we could do it. Never mind that I had never led a class project in building a group Web site. I knew I could teach good researching skills. With the power of engaging questions and undaunted courage (or was that recklessness?), we embarked on the adventure of a lifetime. The model of designing an engaging question to lead research would be put to the ultimate test. Only the foolhardy (or a teacher with a class of excited twelve year olds) dare such an attempt. We accepted the invitation to build the Web site for the Smithsonian BugFest 1999. I knew from the beginning WE could do it. It would be a partnership that would make the impossible, possible.
The Critical Element - Questioning
Questioning has long been accepted as fundamental to Constructivist pedagogy. Probably its widest application is seen in the field of science education where students are encouraged to actively create questions and construct knowledge through experimentation. The fundamental premise is that meaningful questions, determined by the student, engage and motivate learning. Constructivism has drawn its critics, however. Unfocused searching for answers without an understanding of basic concepts and principles can produce misconceptions. The solution was simple. I would blend questioning with structured teaching pieces to offer focus for problem solving. First, students would ask compelling questions on an insect related to one of the units of study in the California History-Social Science Framework and Standards. Next, I would devise learning opportunities to offer students the opportunity to learn the fundamental concepts needed for future application. For example, since I started with a need to know taxonomy, I could expect students would need support in that area. To fill that gap, I created an interactive hands-on teaching activity called "Nailing Down Taxonomy." Next, students needed to demonstrate a basic understanding of taxonomic nomenclature applied to pictures of real insects. I created "Investigator I" as a basic level digital activity to solve this problem. Students might need to know the placement of a graphic or picture on a page so the "Picture This" activity was born. The blend of structured investigation and constructivist questions created a new twist. It was a new direction and I liked where it was going. Now I needed to harness the individual questions to a group structure that would confirm this was an authentic research activity. I looked to the business world and found the answer in the job application process.
Want a Job?
What talents could each student bring to bear to allow the development of a group project demonstrating the connections between insects and history? Only the students knew that answer, so the students were asked to apply for a job. Commitment and determination are an important part of success. The resiliency to strive for an answer is fundamentally important in problem solving. There were different talents in the class that would be needed at differing stages of the Web site development. There would be many hurdles to overcome. I need a committed team to work with me; they needed to know that our combined efforts would yield a successful research project.
I wrote job descriptions, matching "real" jobs to classroom needs. Students wrote an essay explaining special skills and talents they could bring to a job and their willingness to learn new skills. Each job application was carefully reviewed and students were placed in jobs and teams to complete defined tasks. (See the "About Us" page on Insecta Inspecta World, www.insecta-inspecta.com/).
We questioned, pondered, researched, wrote, and sleuthed our way through historical records and scientific documentation. Original insect cartoons, scientific diagrams, and clever animations were made to capture a fidgety audience that could escape on a mouse click. Over and over we were put to the test, creating and researching beyond what could be fathomed for seventh graders. We were unwilling to settle for the easy solutions. One of our seventh grade units of study is the "Aztecs, Incas, and Mayans." At one point, one of my students was going to visit Mexico. We called the University of Mexico and made arrangements for her to pick up documents relating to our investigation of "How did the ancient Aztecs sustain high crop yield with essentially 'organic farming' (without pesticides)? Were insects a concern?" Maybe we could unravel the mystery of the chinampas and insect control. The document was in Spanish, so with the help of parents we translated it. Our answer appears on our Web site as "Questions that Bug Us" at www.insecta-inspecta.com/quest/index.html. We invite you to see what we discovered.
There are similar stories for each page of the Insecta Inspecta World Web site. What began as compelling questions were now captivating answers. The Insecta Inspecta Web site debuted at the Smithsonian BugFest 1999 to rave reviews. We continue to receive e-mail from the general public and communicate with scientists from around the world. There are 915 Web sites on the Internet that link to Insecta Inspecta World and use our material. Professors teaching microbiology, university entomology, and medical Web sites, U.S. government pest management reports, and myriad museums, school districts, and classrooms herald our success. National Geographic Xpeditions has developed a teaching activity and utilizes our material. You can view the lesson at www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/03/gk2/insects.html. Cobblestone Publishing produced a CALLIOPE issue devoted to the Black Death and links online to our Web site. The Insecta Inspecta Web site has won a host of awards. Recently Insecta Inspecta was chosen by the University of Florida as "Best of Bugs." The Web site will be featured on a poster that will be distributed nationally to educational institutions. Insecta Inspecta World has a devoted following. More than 130,000 people have visited the Web site since May 1999. In 2000, Insecta Inspecta World hosted a national Insect Art Contest. I wrote the contest. My student partners completed the art and the HTML coding and our public relations team answered a mountain of e-mail from across the United States. We created a digital butterfly to advertise the contest that was later etched on a medal awarded by the Smithsonian for the third place winners.
Coming Up to Speed
At my first opportunity, I enrolled in the pilot training for the Intel Teach to the Future Program. The Intel Teach to the Future program is designed to address the challenges that teachers face in effectively incorporating computer technology to enhance student learning. This professional development program emphasizes hands-on practice and the creation of curricular units and evaluation tools that comply with state and national academic and technology standards. The program marries student-centered curriculum development with digital resources. The Intel Teach to the Future Program gave me the knowledge to close the expertise gap that handicapped me throughout the first year of operation. Today, the Intel Teach to the Future Program has trained more than 100,000 teachers worldwide. I am glad I was one of them.
At the Intel Teach to the Future training, I met Paulette Goldfisher who planned to create a lesson plan on butterflies for her class in a nearby elementary school. Together we hatched a new concept, one that would be a "tiered project" connecting first graders and seventh graders via e-mail. The seventh graders would then expand the connection by researching the question and enlisting the aide of scientists around the world. A particularly compelling question resulted from the dialogue between Jessamyn Edra and her first grade "buddy." After exhausting twenty-seven research sources, both hard copy and digital, the question "Do Butterflies Sleep?" was forwarded to Dr. David Adamski, support scientist with the Systematic Entomology Laboratory, Smithsonian Museum. Dr. Adamski is a lepidopterist, a scientist who studies butterflies. The question was worth additional research and consideration so he contacted two other lepidopterists and engaged in a dialogue among his peers to resolve the seemingly simple question. The story is best told by Jessamyn. "Butterfly Buddies teaches you to condense and simplify. It teaches you responsibility. A little 1st grader is counting on you to write back and once you read their first e-mail, full of misspellings and with a picture, you don't want to let them down. They ask you a question, you research it, and get this big paragraph with all these big scientific terms back. You put it in '1st grade language' and reply. You have to remember your responsibility as a friend to your buddy." The answer to the question? Scientists have not yet determined if butterflies sleep. There are still questions unanswered. The elegant butterflies on medieval Japanese ka-mons now held new meaning. The artistry of Japanese history had a haunting secret that connected distant lands to everyday experience and brought a 1st grader, 7th grader, and world scientists together to form a digital community of learners. What a large task to complete on gossamer wings!
So What?
Does this mean that everyone should study insects and history? Perhaps, if we expand our vision of geography and environment we can begin to realize the vital role that they play in history. Should every teacher build a Web site? No. Does technology make a significant difference in connecting people and resources. Resoundingly, yes. Learning occurs faster and more thoroughly when it is presented in a meaningful context, with an experiential authentic component. A compelling question cannot be shoved into a book and stored on a shelf. It begs for resolution. It leaps out and tugs at your curiosity, pulling you to discovery. A digital machine becomes a portal to a new world of discovery and publication. The Insecta Inspecta World team at www.insecta-inspecta.com has a question for you.
Jan Coleman-Knight is a history-social science teacher at Thornton Junior High School in Fremont, California. She is California's nominee for the National Education Association's Foundation in Teaching Award, 2002. Jan was named a finalist in the 2001 Disney American Teacher Awards, Middle School Humanities. In 2000 she received the Intel Innovations in Teaching Award for the Insecta Inspecta Program. In the same year she was named the California State University, Hayward, Alumni Teacher of the Year. As the Alameda County Teacher of the Year she was one of ten finalists for the 2000 California Teacher of the Year. In 1999, Paulette Goldfisher and Jan won the Intel ACE Group Project Award for the "Butterfly Buddies" project. Currently she is a Master Teacher in the Intel Teach to the Future Program. You can reach her by visiting Insecta Inspecta World at www.insecta-inspecta.com and completing an e-mail to the Web team. The students on the public relations staff and Jan would love to hear from you.The world is covered in bugs, so shouldn't you know a little bit about them?
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