Students at Brooklyn School for Collaborative Studies Confront Cancer
By Mary Frost
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
CARROLL GARDENS — “Ewww!” said one fourth-grader, gazing in horror at a video showing a tumor the size of a small football growing out of the side of a man’s face. “Oh, that’s as big as my brother’s head!” exclaimed another. “That’s as big as both your brothers’ heads!” said a third child.
It’s a sure bet that Brooklyn New School elementary school students will remember the causes and biology of cancer formation after attending an interactive exhibition put on by Brooklyn School for Collaborative Studies 11th-graders.
The high school juniors created oversized models of DNA, mutant cells and other projects illustrating what happens when cells become cancerous. On Wednesday, they conducted tours for the younger students and provided explanations of the science behind the cells.
“This one really got them,” said junior Ricky Martinez, who was running the video explaining the formation of tumors and their spread. “A lot of them were shocked to learn that we all have benign tumors, like birth marks and vocal cord nodules. Benign tumors can be any size. This one [the football-sized tumor] belonged to a Native American who waited 30 years to get it checked out.”
School Uses
‘Expeditionary’ Approach
“Cells Gone Wild” was the culmination of a five-week unit that illustrates Collaborative Studies’ “expeditionary” approach to education, rooted in the belief that teens learn best by working with professionals on big investigations of real-world problems. The students and teachers of the 11th grade kicked off the unit in early November with a panel of cancer experts and two of the school’s own teachers who had survived cancer.
Science teacher Tom Mullane, who organized the event along with history teacher Stephen Simons, said, “The idea is, it’s boring to just learn about the role of DNA, chromosomes and the cell cycle. So the ‘expeditionary’ vehicle we’re using is cancer. Two members of the staff are fully recovered from cancer — sarcoma and lymphoma. It’s a natural fit.”
“We pride ourselves on authentic learning,” he said. “They sent me and the science staff to a workshop just to learn how to do this kind of thing. The students have created online blogs and all of these displays. We told them: ‘Take a topic and find a way to teach somebody much younger than you.’ They’ve been practicing concept maps, diagrams.”
Junior Raymel Romero, whose project covered the areas of cytokinesis and mitosis, said the purpose of the exhibition was “to show what we’ve learned and pass on our knowledge. It’s cool that way.” As the younger students clustered around Raymel’s table, he instructed them to look through the microscopes.
“This is an onion slice,” he explained as three children bent their heads to the eyepieces. “You can observe the different phases.” He explained that DNA copies itself during mitosis; cytokinesis is when the cell’s cytoplasm divides. “A pre-cancerous cell divides more often than normal, and eventually a cancerous tumor develops,” he said.
A young student told fourth-grade science teacher Tanya Bacchus that his mother has moles. “Doctors watch the moles to see if they change,” she told him.
She told the Brooklyn Eagle, “We’re about to start studying this topic tomorrow, which is so cool. This is how we’re going to jump-start our unit.”
The exhibit also included anti-smoking performances, a snack bar of foods with cancer-preventing qualities, and screening and preventative health information provided by the American Cancer Society, the New York City Department of Health and Jennifer Zartarian, a wellness expert from Long Island College Hospital. These organizations all co-sponsored the event.
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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