Inquiry Based Instruction in ACTION. Time to ruminate!

Get ready to read about the most unique lab preparation experience you will probably ever encounter... at least in AEE 412. 

DISCLAIMER: while this may be my most exciting lab reflection blog post yet, it also does contain some photos of internal animal systems... this blog post is not for the feint of heart (or stomach) but should be JUST FINE for all you AEE majors who will be teaching this stuff! 

While we were told that Inquiry Based Instruction can be the most difficult concept to prepare for, facilitate, and feel successful about of all the methods we have encountered thus far, I felt pretty excited to test the IBI waters with this lab. 

I will be teaching animal digestion in the spring at Wellsboro, and based on a positive personal learning experience from digging into a real digestive system (see the shout-out from my summer EARTH University blog), I figured it would be optimal to provide a digestive system for my "students" (aka college-aged peers) to work with in summarizing my imaginary digestion unit. 

I called the local(ish) butcher shop in Spring Mills, PA on Friday last week to ask about possibly having any digestive systems on hand from an upcoming butchering. I explained that I would use it for an educational lab at Penn State and that I could come pick it up Wednesday. While I would have loved a ruminant system, I didn't really NEED one, so I just told him that anything smaller than a bovine digestive system could work (pig, sheep, goat, etc.). 

He said they were going to be butchering on Tuesday, some beef and some sheep. I asked for them to set aside a digestive system of a sheep (from esophagus to small intestine) so that I could pick it up Wednesday morning. He said no problem. 

I called Tuesday to verify that they would still be able to hold from that day's work, but never received a response, so I drove out to Spring Mills on Wednesday morning hoping for the best. Lab started around 12:20 so I wanted to be back in Ferguson by noon. 

When I and my lovely assistant, Alyssa (sophomore AnSci student), arrived at the butcher shop, they informed us they hadn't kept anything (someone forgot to mention my call) and that it was all outside in the "bins." With this much foreboding statement, one of the guys offered to go out with us and see if anything was salvageable from these bins... Note photo of first glance at the "bins." I didn't think it appropriate to show what was actually in them... 

See the sticker that says "Inedible?" Well, it is accurate.

 Needless to say, we decided not to go digging in aforementioned bins but to brainstorm another option. The guys told us that if we waited around until about lunchtime, some goats were coming in to be butchered and we could take a system from one of them. While this would have pushed back our arrival at Ferguson for lab time, I verified with the lab instructor that I could be a bit late... with digestive system in tow.

While I did not capture photos of the two hours Alyssa and I spent at the butcher shop that morning, let me just say that it was one of the most hands-on educational meat science experiences I have ever had! The guys were so nice at this shop - they asked if we wanted to look around the place, in the coolers, the cutting room, and even be on the kill floor for the goat butchering! While you all may not find this interesting, Alyssa and I took them up on the offer and donned some white lab coats and hair nets to stand in entrance of the kill floor room for the goat arrival...

After getting to know the two main butchers, Bill and "Chicken," and talking with the USDA inspector present, we gathered the ruminant digestive system to come from the first goat and headed back to University Park.

My dear lab group was so very kind to endure the smells that came from the digestive system (not that pleasant) and, for the most part, was involved in the process. The interest approach was giving them these five samples of hay and asking them to gather observations. They were intended to reflect the various steps of forage breakdown in the ruminant system. For the activity itself, the students' only instruction was to "relate these samples of hay to whatever is in the big black bag on the table (aka the ruminant system)."

From top, counterclockwise: dry hay sample, somewhat wet "cud" sample, reticulum partially digested, omasum coarse sample, and finally "puree" abomasum hay. 

While I felt a little strange just sending them to play with the digestive organs without guidance, Emily quickly jumped on the ball (due to extreme personal interest) and kind of led the group in the activity. She, right away, asked for the supplies to get started (butchering knives - something I won't as readily just hand to high school kids) and got started. Some group members were not as keen to dig in, but I gave the option for disinterested students to focus on taking notes/observations for the group. There still was the problem of a disengaged Todd, so I should have pushed him to play a bit of a more active role than just feeding information and watching.

Casi taking notes, Todd giving information, and Annette assisting Emily (ring leader)

It was also difficult, in this "student-centered" situation, to really allow my level of "teacher enthusiasm" to show, as I wasn't really teaching, but rather guiding in learning. The students did an outstanding job of asking questions, answering them, and exploring the system. They cut out some of the actual partially digested food samples and (with some directing questions from me) related them to the original hay samples.

While the time did seem to go fast, I was afraid that, after they related these items to the system, they would think they were done... and they achieved their abstract goal within 10 of the 20 minutes of "dissection" time. However, it was exciting to see that they still kept self-teaching about the connections in the system, linings of the ruminant compartments, and - perhaps the strangest thing that occurred that day - finding tapeworms in the small intestine. It was at first kind of disgusting (well, overall it was) but encouraging that Emily knew a bit about them and shared with the other students that they aren't harmful to the intestines or the meat, but that they just decrease the overall feed efficiency of the animal.

Emily struck the gold mine - and the facial expressions speak for themselves.

Overall, this was an awesome learning experience and unique opportunity to try out IBI. I think I could have allowed the students to make their own conclusions with a little less input, but I was running out of time and wanted to make sure they met the goals of explaining how they went about the process.

I can definitely tell you that I will not forget this week's lab prep and execution anytime soon!