Why Not Collect Them?

As my students know, I am a great believer in hands-on activities. Even my upper level undergraduate courses had laboratory practicals (exams) that required students to manipulate and observe carefully test items and most all exams had a section on sketching! Yes, sketching! I am a great believer that sketching helps in the understanding of organism structure, life cycles, and processes. It is a great way to get the material into that super aerobic (involving oxygen) organ, the human brain! Yes, aerobic - the brain is composed of 85% water and on average comprises 2 percent of the total body weight, yet it requires 25 percent of all oxygen used, as opposed to 7 percent by the heart.

My wife always gets amused that,when I explain something, I always need a pad of paper and pencil to make my explanations clearer. This brings me to the story of a new father explaining reproduction to his three year old daughter! The question arose from the lips of my little one, “Where do babies come from?” Everyone knows this question is handled differently by a plethora of parents.

I quickly went into super explanation mode. Off to get paper and pens! On the paper I explained how the male’s sperm fertilized the female’s egg. My sketching of the sperm and egg cell would have made Gary Larson proud. (Oh, you know- the Far Side cartoonist!) My gal did not ask how the sperm got to the egg (Thanks heavens! I was busy enough drawing Sammy Sperm and Ethel Egg.)

I explained that each month when a girl is mature enough an egg is produced. If the egg is fertilized by the sperm cell then a new baby is made. Wow- I did a marvelous job! Tucking my little one in with the knowledge that all her questions were answered sufficiently and the concept understood, she looked up at me and asked, “Daddy, can we keep the eggs?” She thought she would produce a dozen in a year and we needed to display them on a shelf.
I kissed her on the cheeks. We said our prayers and I left her room with the knowledge that my wonderful explanation may need some honing in the future.