Rethinking Education #4 - The Importance of Play

This TEDx Talk by John Cohn highlights something that I feel isn’t looked at nearly enough within a traditional secondary school setting - playtime! His talk borrows from the ideas of the Maker movement - that is, the movement that promotes do-it-yourself projects of any shape or fashion. Naturally, the driving factors combine well with the ideals of STEAM education and will find their place within my science classroom. Cohn peppers his talk with many anecdotal pieces of having worked as an engineer for many years and how he treats play not just for the purpose of relaxing, but for generating creativity and bliss. As an educator,  know I can harness this within my classroom to not only created students that are invested in the tasks at hand, but have some fun myself!
    Some may say that I subscribe too much to the idea that fun is critical to one’s well being, but my conclusion stems from the fact that without actively having fun or playing in everything I do, I tend to develop some degree of misery. For my teaching, I want to spread this to my students beyond that of being a genuine, bonafide fun-haver; I want them to enjoy being in my class and be able to play with the concepts we cover in pursuit of life science. Just the other day, my anatomy students had finished a dissection earlier than expected and they asked, “Is it time to clean up?” when we really had another ½ hour before that point. I told them, “No, don’t clean up just yet. Let’s… uh… (thinking on the fly here) I want you to find one section of the kidney you’re dissecting, some part that you find interesting. Something you want to look at under a microscope.” Rather than wrap up, they suddenly had freedom to explore and tinker, to play and discover on their own, beyond my instructions. It went terrifically. The students raved about the different structures they were seeing and we ran out of time.
    I have to admit, part of what appeals about Cohn to me is that he is a striking individual - rainbow lab coat, a multicolored pulsating LED headband, the classic crazy scientist hair. He’s a character that seems pulled from some children’s cartoon. What would happen if you were to throw a character like him in front of your average high school science class? Would their stare in awe or would they sneer with disgust - OR would they sneer in awe and stare with disgust? Would they hang on every word or ignore the LED-studded maniac? I believe it’s more of the first. I believe that characters and big, showy presentations have wonderful place in high school to not just impress, but involve many students. The trick is pairing these larger-than-life experiences with reality. Giving your students the opportunity to create something that seems larger-than-life. 


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 Cohn, J. (2013). Retrieved November 28, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-NT1-BdOvI ​