Okay I’m not a big fan of cockroaches. I grew up in Miami, FL and we had those big, flying cockroaches with the antennae that looked like human hair. My mother always screamed when she saw one so early on I picked up that fear. To this day when I see a black blur out of the corner of my eye I still turn quickly wondering if it’s a cockroach! (Even though I live in WA state now where there are no roaches.) So when I chose to use the Foss Kit, Diversity of Life, with my 8th grade Life Science students I thought I could handle the Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches that came with the kit. I mean they had a hard looking exoskeleton after all, the antennae were thicker than human hair, and the pamphlet said they moved slowly. I don’t mind beetles, I just freak around cockroaches.
I tried. I really did. I picked some up. I petted some. But I couldn’t do that for long and I couldn’t have one crawl on me. And they are pretty darn fast! Luckily, in each class of 8th graders there are those who can handle the roaches for the rest of the kids. I just keep my distance and I’m fine. I don’t mind having them in the room, as long as they don’t get out.
I’ve had them around for a few years now and I’ve found much evidence of their molting. Carcasses would appear on a regular basis and the little roaches were getting bigger. But one day this spring we saw one actually come out of it’s shell and it was quite a sight! They are pure white when they come out!
Seeing that white roach was amazing. But I was even more amazed that a few hours later it was already starting to darken:
By the next day it was fully darkened even though its exoskeleton was soft. Soft exoskeletons are the only way we know a roach molted recently. Pretty cool! I have more respect for these little bugs now. 🙂
After writing this post and leaving it for done it occurred to me that maybe I should have made it a bit deeper by having the topic be a metaphor for something having to do with education. Yes, this actually bugged me (sorry, I couldn’t resist the pun). So here it goes, this molting, shedding of the old and bringing in the new, is what summer is all about. So shed your exoskeletons, remember that your students are shedding theirs. Your new students will be a little different than they were last year and your previous students will have grown and matured a bit too. For us summer is a chance to rest and recharge so that we can be our best for those new roaches this coming fall. Enjoy your summer (if you’re in the hemisphere that’s off right now), be with your families, relax, have fun, and recharge those batteries!
