Stories from the Stringam Family Ranches of Southern Alberta

From the 50s and 60s to today . . .



Friday, December 5, 2014

Biology

The room of learning.
One of my favourite classes in high school was Biology.
We did exciting things in Biology.
Dissected worms.
Hid the teachers notes.
Dissected deer eyes.
Checked each other's blood pressure.
Dissected frogs.
Typed each other's blood.
Gassed a bat and then drowned it, mistakenly thinking it was already dead. (One of the more traumatic days in Biology.)
Watched our teacher try to blow up the lab.
Slept through informative movies.
Watched our newly-engaged teacher try to remember what he was supposed to be teaching.
Dissected rats.
Grew weird things in petrie dishes.
We had fun.
And we were a good class.
Didn't cause too much trouble.
I will admit that we had a 'lost and found' board in our Biology lab.
But I'm sure that everyone has at least one of those.
Where else would you tack the frog tongues, frog legs, rat tails, and other things guaranteed to gross out the more squeamish members of the classroom?
But there is one thing that I remember vividly from all of my years in biology.
And only because of the unfortunate way in which my teacher chose to say it.
Maybe I should explain . . .
We were studying something very pithy: friction.
Did you know that friction is responsible for a lots of things?
Traction, for one.
Gripping.
Stopping.
In fact if it weren't for friction, we would simply slip and slide around everywhere.
I know that sounds like fun, but it's really not.
Our teacher explained it very well.
And yes, this was the teacher who was newly-engaged and only visited our planet for very short periods of time.
He told us, and I quote, “Friction is caused by two bodies rubbing together.”
Did you know that?
We didn't.
But you can be sure that we, and especially the boys in the classroom, never, ever, forgot it.
After that, not a day went past without someone making the selfless offer to help someone else study friction.
True story.
Biology class.
What would school life be like without it?

14 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness! I bet your teacher has never forgotten that either! And trust the boys to keep the joke going - hee hee!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think friction is the only thing I remember from my high school days!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heehee! It's pretty much the only thing I remember from Biology class! :)

      Delete
  3. My younger son is taking AP biology this year - definitely NOT sharing this one with him :)!

    ReplyDelete
  4. That was unfortunate.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I often wonder if he wished he could just suck those words back into his mouth . . .

      Delete
  5. I wonder if he told his future wife what he said in class that day? I bet she would have laughed!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Now I REALLY wish I'd stayed at school longer. All the fun stuff went on in higher grades when I was there. In year 9 we'd only just begun to learn a little chemistry and biology was mostly restricted to plants.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I remember Biology well I was one of the more squeamish in the classroom for sure! I did create alot of friction though!

    ReplyDelete

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