The Onion, the Peanut, the Banana and the Test Tube

Teachers are NOT all knowing anyway. But a teacher who promotes an atmosphere of trust and open-mindedness invites students to engage in an inquiry-based classroom. He also learns along the way, identifies his own misconception and works together with the students in rediscovering knowledge through heuristics. Such happened to me during the semester 1 this school year. As a generalist, I discovered that students developed a kind of confidence to take charge of their own learning when the teacher seemed to or appeared to know less of a certain relevant question that surfaced during a class discussion. And there is also one incident when I learned a lesson from a student which I would not probably forget throughout life in doing a laboratory activity.


Case #1: The Onion

A student reporter was discussing modified stems when one student asked a question:

Student 1: Sir, what part of the garlic is planted?
Me: The garlic clove. You just need to get one and plant it. Use hays as a mulch and wait for months and you’ll have garlic clovers.
Vice: How about onions?
Me: I actually don’t know. I haven’t seen an onion plant yet. What do you think class?
Student 1: It’s the bulb.
Me: How?
Student 1: When we were in high school, we just planted the whole bulb and we harvested it?
Me: Oh, how could that be? Did the bulb grow bigger? Or was it replaced by a new one?
Student 1: I think sir, the bulb that we used decomposed and was replaced by a new one?
Me: What’s the point of planting the bulb? A bulb gets a bulb. So let us just use the bulb than plant it because it won’t grow any bigger and reproduce anyway. What do you think class?
Student 2: I think, what is planted is the part of the bulb. The bulb will be sliced along with some leaves and they will be planted. Overtime, the bulb grows bigger.
Me: Uhum! Interesting. But the bulb will be exposed to microorganisms and it might decompose.
Student 3: I think, it’s the leaves.
Student 1: No, it’s the bulb itself. Look, have you bought the native onion. Isn’t the bulb deformed and in one plant, there are about three or four of these deformed fragments on the base. So, probably these are separated from each other and planted and grow into a big onion like what we see in the market.
Student 2: No, it’s the sliced bulb that is used by farmer.

(There were disagreements. Students started to make noise supporting and refuting the ideas above.)

Me: Ok, that will be your assignment. But if you cannot wait, I can call a friend. He is into agriculture and was conducting studies on onions. Do you want this thing to be settled right now?
Everybody: Yes sir!
Me: Ok (dialled the number and activate the loud speaker.) Sir, we just want to ask a very important question which confused my students and me. How are onions propagated?
Friend: Of course through seeds!
Me: What? Do they have seeds? Do they flower?
Friend: Naman! Ano ka ba? (Of course, what is happening to you?)

(The class laughed aloud.)

Case # 2 The Peanut

Student 1: Sir are peanut rootcrops?
Sir: No, they are nuts. They are legumes.
Student 1: But sir, they formed beneath the ground extending from the roots? Can’t we call them rootcrops?
Sir: What a nice question. Please research on that.

(Later, the student reported in class that peanuts are not actually rootcrops. Peanuts are fruits which were formed from flowers. According to the research of the student, when the pistil is pollinated, the ovary bulges and since it is heavy it bent to the ground and touches the ground. The fruit is fully developed underground. There are also fruits that developed above the ground, however their color is green and they are not as mature as those that grow underneath.)

Case # 3 The Banana

Student 1: Sir, why is it that most bananas don’t have seeds?
Me: Oh, you know banana is an example of a plant that bears fruit even without fertilization. It’s hormonal.
Student 1: But they have flowers sir?
Me: Yes, but it’s the hormone that allows the banana to mature.
Student 1: What hormone sir?
Me: Honestly, I don’t kow?
Student 2: And what’s the purpose why the bosom (heart) of the banana is removed?
Student 3: And why is it that one banana plant is just designed to produce a bunch of fruit and then it is cut?
Me: Oh, well. Very good questions. You know where to go to, to answer these (referring to the internet). This will be your assignment!

(Next meeting, the student reported that the first sets of flowers produced by the banana are the female flowers. Male flowers are to develop later. The delay of the formation of the male flowers caused the maturation of the ovary, even when there is no pollination and fertilization. The reason why the (bosom) is cut is to enable the nutrients to be concentrated on the developing fruit. Bananas are annuals, after producing fruit, they cannot produce another set so they are cut.

Later on I met the word parthenogenesis, the development of an organism even in the absence of fertilization. And I happened to see some related words down, it is parthenocarpy, the maturation of ovary (carpel) into a fruit even without fertilization. So, I told them about it.)

Case #4: The Coconut

Student 1: Sir, where does the water from the coconut come from?
Me: Hmmm. That’s a very good question. Where do you think?
Student 1: If, it’s from the soil, why is it that it tastes sweet?
Me: Hmmm. Well, try to investigate on that.

(I was so amazed with the question that upon reaching home I googled about coconut water but my search results did not give a very comprehensive answer. It did not say much about where this coconut water came from but it said that these are cells (non-nucleated) and will eventually form into a coconut meat and an embryo (bukag) later on. That’s the reason why when, shoots start coming out from any of the three eyes of the coconut shell, the coconut meat becomes oily and thinner and the bulk of the endocarp becomes an embryo.)

Case # 5 The Test Tube

Since there was only one functional bunsen burner in the laboratory, I did a demonstration on depigmentation of mayana leaf. I forgot to ask the lab assistant to take out test tube holder. It was noontime so her office was close. So what I did was I heated the ethyl alcohol in the test tube using my hand protected only by a hanky. The leaf was placed inside the solution and they were amazed watching the changes that took place.

Student 1: Wow, it’s like magic!
Student 2: Crispy leaf!
Student 3: Look at the veins…

Suddenly, there was a mild explosion and the alcohol almost spilled over my face had I not jerked out. I overheard one student say:

“Is it not that we should not aim the opening of the test tube to anybody while heating something?”

I said, “Yes, you’re right. But you know, we did not have a test tube holder!” But actually, I almost forgot that rule because after so many years, it was just my first time to do a laboratory again. Nice lesson. I could not forget it.

So now, who will say that we do not learn from students. Maybe, we have moved to an age where we have to admit that we are no longer the main source of knowledge. Our students have preconceptions of whatever is it that we want them learn in class. I am not ashamed though to let the world know that I am limited as a teacher and as that I am collaborating with my students to learn.