In my A&P classes, I have often used dissection of animal organs, which allows my student a hand-on experience & gives them the opportunity to visualize the parts of the organ & feel the different textures. For instance, I have the students dissect a beef heart. They cut the heart in half to let them see the chambers, vessels, linings of the heart, etc. Sometimes they even see blood clots. The students love this activity. They have read about the organ, & now they have a chance to convert the information they've learned into a real hands-on experience, which will allow them to retain the info for a much longer period of time.
Getting students to use all of their senses allow them to retain more of the material. It has been noted that the sense of smell triggers the memory. Music has also been used to assist in memory development. Putting basic information to a melody increases the retention rate.
Hi Kamarah:
Using "real world" scenarios is often considered a great technique for imparting information.
It provides the student with the chance to see what their career will be like.
Regards, Barry
I am extremely kinesthetic so I need to touch it, feel it, and smell it with the student.
Hi Carol:
Here's a great example of "your senses" being used in the classroom!
Regards, Barry
My question is how do I keep my students and their senses interested in my class when it is 3 and 1/2 hours long. From say 6pm to 9:30pm. Its very frustrasting and at about 9pm their brains shut down...so does mine. You say 20 minute lectures?? How do I make that work?
I try to balance lecture (listening) with practice (touch/sight) as much as possible. It helps engage the students and gets them moving around the classroom too.
I am a pastry instructor at a school and when I demo the food items for the students and can show them the different textures, flavors and looks they have less troubles in the class reproducing the same item.
In writing, is is essential to apeal to the senses: imagery is necessary in conveying setting and situation.
I believe that an instructor needs to be aware that the delivery of information needs to meet the needs of all learners. Being versitile and offering information that utilizes auditory, tactile, and cognitive helps the learner at all levels of learning.
I teach Software Engineering so I have a class full of geeks. I guess I should order pizza to get the senses involved. The usual recommendation on motivating geeks is to supply free food only occasionally.
Actually, the use of color on the PowerPoints, having the students go to the white board to capture generated ideas, and allow them to hold their small group meetings on the patio has helped to motivate them.
I am teaching a basic computer class, including some hardware, MS Word, Internet (including stealing information, etc). For the hardware, I called a local computer store and asked if they had any old broken parts that I could have. I asked if they had lots. They did. It was great to pass them around so students to see how heavy they were, where connections were, how they fit together, what parts they are not supposed to touch, how sharp the backs of the boards are, etc.
In the medical field, it is probably not advisable (nor pleasant) to try to bring scents into the classroom. However, when in the clinical setting, a student who smells the dinstinct odors of C-Diff or peudomonas, will not soon forget it, and will have that association burned into their memories, for better or for worse! But seriously, it is a good thing to be able to quickly diagnose those two things and put a patient on isolation precautions before waiting for the official results to come in.
Hi Cindy:
Great examples where the sense play an essential role in learning. I believe through creative adaptation, all students in most any class can tune in to their senses to make fuller use of them; to study, to memorize, to facilitate new and creative thought, to apply - these and more just take being sensitive to senses we take for granted.
Regards, Barry
I teach massage therapy. All of the senses are used in doing so. First students must hear the information(anatomy,physiology,text info), they must see in many ways(diagrams of anatomy,physiology,memorization...),they must smell(learning of essential oils & their uses or their own appearancei.e. breath or use of cologne), and the most important sense of all in the industry is touch. After all other senses are used to learn content, touch is their finest teacher.
Hi Kyla:
Good examples of demonstrating an awareness of our senses. We can also employ senses in more subtle ways in our learning methods. The more senses used, the better the retention of information will be.
I think stuednts will natually hum while they're reading if that's something they do anyway. Or fiddle with pencil, such as softly tapping. If we can encourage students to rewrite their notes, then read aloud their notes, then summarize them again, we're using sound, touch, vision, and repetiotion. Although repetion is not a sense, it is an extremely valuable tool for students to improve memorizing recall type fact, for instance.
Regards, Barry
I believe in the senses in learning. In the criminal justice field, seeing a crime scene, listening to various participants, touching the various evidence and the smell. The smell will always help determine what scene you have and also help prepare you when arriving at a new scene.
During my first term of teaching, I taught an Early Childhood Health, Nutrition, and Safety class. While discussing illnesses, such as the common cold, I used an activity to show my students how much your sense of smell and sight affects your sense of taste. I paired them up and gave them bags of jelly beans. The taster was blindfolded and asked to pinch their nose while they chewed and swallowed the jelly beans. Their partner then recorded their answers. I then had them eat the same flavors of jelly beans as you would normally and record their answers. They were amazed to see how much difference there was between their answers when their senses were impaired compared to when they were allowed to function as they would normally.
I also used an experiment that demonstrated how easily and quickly germs are passed using baby powder. I had one volunteer sprinkle baby powder on her hand and then shake the hands of her classmates. The students were surprised to see how far around the room she was able to get before no one noticed any traces of the baby powder. They were then all instructed to go to the restroom to practice proper handwashing techniques.
The activities weren't high tech, but they were relevant to the material and it provided the students with an opportunity to learn material in an interactive manner rather than constantly through lecture or notes all the time.
Hi Gordon:
Good. I think student naturally learn to rly on their sense that are most helpful to them.
Regards, Barry
