{"id":573597,"date":"2021-06-21T07:15:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-21T11:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/?post_type=article&p=573597"},"modified":"2021-06-23T10:53:00","modified_gmt":"2021-06-23T14:53:00","slug":"cicadas-during-covid-a-golden-moment-for-classroom-engagement-at-the-end-of-an-isolating-school-year","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/article\/cicadas-during-covid-a-golden-moment-for-classroom-engagement-at-the-end-of-an-isolating-school-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Cicadas During COVID \u2014 A \u2018Golden Moment\u2019 For Classroom Engagement At the End of an Isolating School Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

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T<\/span>he Brood X cicadas that have swarmed parts of the United States in recent weeks emerge every 17 years, which scientists believe<\/a> could be a survival tactic that helps them avoid matching their predators\u2019 life cycles.<\/p>\n

For science teachers around the country who live and work in the regions where the periodical cicadas have come out this year, the timing is perfect: After a year of virtual lessons, flagging student engagement and ongoing stress, a real-life science lesson has crawled out of the ground \u2014 and started singing.<\/p>\n

For Nancy Murtaugh, a fourth-grade math and science teacher at Fairfield North Elementary in Ohio, the cicada unit was a \u201cgolden moment\u201d at the end of a long school year.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything just came together and I felt like, this is our class, we’re back,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were engaged in learning, they were 100 percent in. And that’s when you make the brain connections,\u201d Murtaugh said. \u201cIf you’re not actively involved in something, and you don’t care about it, you’re not going to make those brain connections, it’s not going to stay in your long-term memory. They’re going to remember this stuff forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murtaugh\u2019s lessons on the cicadas incorporated far more than science, touching on math (Roman numerals and prime numbers), art (origami cicadas), English (writing letters to the first-graders about about what they\u2019d learned) and geography (mapping where the different cicada broods emerge).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Periodical cicadas sit on leaves in Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C., on May 25, 2021. (Astrid Riecken \/ The Washington Post via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When they first started to see the bugs, Murtaugh\u2019s students weren\u2019t sure they wanted to get too close, so she tried to \u201cham them up,\u201d she said. \u201cI just kept saying, \u2018Oh, they’re so silly looking. There’s nothing to be afraid of.\u2019\u201d While the kids came around on the cicadas and started to treat them like pets, many adults consider them pests who make too much noise and threaten their trees<\/a> and gardens. (Only very young trees are at risk of being damaged by cicadas, who lay eggs in tree branches, experts say<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

For Jenn Carroll, teaching her Fairfield, Ohio, high school students about the cicadas, which appear in parts of 15 states<\/a>, is personal. As a college student, she helped Gene Kritsky<\/a>, a leading expert on periodical cicadas at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati, with his research. At the time, he was studying what soil temperature is needed for the cicadas to come out. (They emerge when the top layer of soil reaches about 64 degrees<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Carroll, who teaches environmental science, doesn\u2019t mind that her students think of her as \u201cthat crazy cicada teacher,\u201d she said. In addition to the science lessons about the insect life cycle and survival strategy, Carroll said the cicadas can teach students about the passage of time, causing them to consider where they\u2019ll be in 17 years, and how the natural world continued to turn even as many humans spent the last year in lockdown fearing a virus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’re still going to do this every 17 years, no matter what is going on in the world,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Princeton High School students gather for a cicada tasting event. (Courtesy Princeton Insect Eating Club)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A good source of protein<\/h3>\n

A group of students in Princeton, New Jersey, have taken hands-on learning to the next level. Princeton High School\u2019s insect-eating club has hosted cicada tastings to introduce their community to the periodical snack. Students stir fried and deep fried cicadas and mixed them into cookies, brownies and banana bread.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just want to spread the awareness that these are positive beneficial creatures. And instead of killing them, we should learn to like to, you know, either use them or protect them,\u201d student Mulin Huan said.<\/p>\n

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A post shared by PHS Insect Eating Club (@phs_insect_club)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n