A Learning Lunch Provides Opportunities to Introduce New Ideas

As the story goes, when Einstein was a boy, his father gave him a compass. The future scientist was fascinated with the way the iron needle always pointed in the same direction, no matter which way it was turned.  An argument could be made that this event was a Type 1 experience, which might have shaped Einstein’s enthusiasm for science and his future career. 

Either way, I want to share an exciting program, which I recently started at the school where I work. It’s called Learning Lunch, and it involves exposing students to new ideas, new concepts, and new information that may not be covered in the regular curriculum—Type 1 activities.

The idea of exposing students to new experiences and ideas falls in line with Renzulli’s Enrichment Triad Model. During Type 1 activities, students gain new experiences through books, videos, guest speakers, and field trips, with the hopes that they will discover a topic or subject that they are passionate about and want to investigate. 

Learning Lunch allows you to set up such experiences for children in a way that enhances education, without taking away from daily instructional time. Here’s how I operate the program:

• First, I survey students from various grades and classrooms to determine what type of presentations they would like to see. The survey can be a simple list of topics, which students circle. Then, I use survey results to select a TedTalk video (https://www.ted.com/talks) to show during the event. Important: view the videos first to make sure they are school and age appropriate. You can search for TedTalks for kids.

Here’s a great video that I have used to get you started:

• https://www.ted.com/talks/david_gallo_shows_underwater_astonishments?language=en

       You can also invite guest speakers to present during the event, which would require locating them, background checks, and scheduling issues; however, the payoff might be worth it.

• After determining what to use for the presentation, I scheduled the event for a particular grade level during the student’s designated lunchtime. (We use the school’s media center, which has a large overhead project, speakers, and tables for eating). I then print out invitation flyers, which I give to classroom teachers. The teachers can give them out to any student, who may have an interest in the upcoming presentation, or they can use it as a behavior incentive—their choice.  Right now, I limit the invitations to four students from each classroom, which adds up to 16 students in total at the event. I hope to increase these numbers as the program progresses.

• Next, I meet the students outside the cafeteria and walk them to the school’s Media Center, where they view the presentation while eating lunch.

• Finally, we end with a debriefing, which consists of several questions, such as:

What questions did the presentation raise in your mind?

Where could we learn more about this topic?

Did anyone think of creative writing, research projects, or other types of activities we can do to learn more about the topic?

The purpose of the Learning Lunch is to provide students with new experiences, which can help discover interests and passions. The more exposure they have to different topics, the greater chance they will discover these interests and passions at a younger age.  This possibility alone makes a Learning Lunch program worth all the effort.

Wishing you the best,

Steve