Placemats (!!?)
A Wacky Way to
Introduce or Review a Topic
Invented and Designed by
Donald Cronkite and Jane Cronkite
Biology Department
Hope College
Holland, MI 49423
NOTE 1: These placemats are available
for you to use and enjoy in your classes. My colleagues and I went
to a lot of trouble to create them, so we'd appreciate your giving credit
when you use them.
NOTE 2: Donald Cronkite is available
for workshops on alternatives to the lecture,
suitable for high school or college faculty. If you are interested
in that possibility, send Donald Cronkite an e-mail
message of inquiry. Alternatively,
call (616) 395-7713 or (616) 395 - 7720.
The Journey to Ironwood
In 1996 my family was vacationing
on Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and we stayed a day or two in Ironwood,
MI, not far from the Wisconsin border. For lunch one day we went
to a Pizza Hut. On the table were advertising placemates with an
interesting twist. The major part of the placemat was taken up with
little ads about local businesses -- Red's Garage, a hair salon, that sort
of thing. Each ad told a little about the business and where it was
located. Then along the right side of the mat was a list of questions,
a quiz over the ads. "Who has 1 hour oil change service?" "Where
can you get double prints from your film on Wednesdays?" The
instructions said to turn your completed quiz in at the cash register to
become eligible for free pizza in the weekly drawing.
We had nothing else to do,
so we answered all the questions, even though we wouldn't be able to take
advantage of the drawing. Our pizza came. We ate it.
And the rest of the day, as we drove to and fro in Ironwood, we saw and
recognized all those places on the placemat. Jane Cronkite recognized
the value of this top notch learning tool. "You should use one of
those in your biology class," she said. And so began the use of placemats
in introductory biology.
Using Placemats
The placemats at this site
have all been developed in response to specific needs. There are
some things that are not interesting to do in class, but are necessary
to know for the fun stuff ... like the parts of the nephron or the brain,
the biologically important classes of molecules, the major phyla of animals.
These have been translated into advertising placemats in which each ad
is for a category -- a part, a class, a phylum. What does it do?
Where is it located? Then over at the side is a list of questions
about the ads.
We give the placemats out
on the first day the relevant topic is being considered. Students
are told to study the placemat and fill out the question part. They
are told to bring the questions to the next class when there will be a
drawing. The student snack bar agreed to provide large soft drinks
as a prize. I provided a bowl for all the answer sheets, and began
the day with the drawing. Students find it odd, but that's part of
the reason I do it! Some of my High School Teacher colleagues have
taken to asking students to design placemats. What a great idea!
Available Placemats
As with most other techniques,
this one works -- to the extent that it works -- because it's done infrequently.
I've only created a few. But use your imagination and create some
of your own. It's more fun that way anyway. Scanned images
of the ones I've done are linked to this page as follows:
Parts of a nephron
Parts of the Brain Biological Molecules
Animal Phyla