Issues In Education
Passion and Fun in the Classroom!
By Robert L. Nydick
When I started my term as editor of the "Issues in Education" column, I read all of the previous columns starting with the first one written by Erhan Erkut (1996). In this column and in other issues of OR/MS Today, I found a recurring theme when I noticed several examples of faculty displaying passion and having fun in the classroom. For example, Robert Bosch teaches mathematical programming by having students study a diet problem using actual menu items at a McDonald's (1993). Norman Pendegraft (February 1997) uses Lego's to teach the economics of linear programming. Henk ten Wolde (August 2000) developed a simulation game using Lego's, called Legostiek Management, that helps the student to learn the building blocks of logistics. Jim Cochran (April 2001) explains how he uses the format from Who Wants to be a Millionaire to reinforce the topics covered in class. Arvid Johnson (February and April 2002) developed a simulation to help students understand the impact of variability in a process flow.
All of these examples remind me of an experience that I had a few years ago when I had my car detailed. When I returned to the carwash, a young man led me to my car that looked like it just came from the showroom. He took at least 10 minutes to carefully explain what he did to my car. He used a special attachment to his vacuum that cleaned in small crevices where the dirt could not be seen. He made sure that there was no wax residue left anywhere on the car. He hand-cleaned all of the controls on my dash and shampooed the carpet in my trunk. He even found 70 cents that I never knew I lost.
As I watched this unfold, I could sense the passion, excitement, enthusiasm and even fun that this young man possessed for a task as seemingly boring as detailing my car. He was proud of his work and I learned something very important that day. Here are a few other examples that I have used in class to attempt to capture the same passion displayed by my car detailer.
Whenever I teach Operations Management, I use one of my hobbies to explain its definition — magic! I show three dirty handkerchiefs and a box of laundry detergent. I explain that we can pretend that the box is a washing machine. I next place the dirty handkerchiefs inside the top of the box, shake the box from side to side, turn the box around several times to simulate a washing machine, and stop when the box is upside down. When I remove the handkerchiefs, they are clean.
At this point there is embarrassing silence, as the students believe that I had the clean handkerchiefs in the bottom of the box the whole time and left the dirty ones inside the top of the box. I explain that I never told the class that I was a good magician! When I tear open the box to show that it is completely empty, the students do not understand how that happened. However, they begin to understand (and maybe more importantly remember) that the definition of Operations Management is to obtain resources (dirty clothes, washing machine, detergent, etc.) and transform them into goods or services (clean clothes).
Many undergraduate students indicated that they did not understand how pairwise comparisons were actually done when using the Analytic Hierarchy Process. The example that we use in class deals with a company that must choose a chocolate chip cookie recipe. We turned this example into a class exercise where actual chocolate chip cookies are used for comparison purposes. When dealing with taste, for example, a group of students can sample the various cookies and then discuss, argue and eventually reach a consensus for the necessary comparison. After introducing chocolate chip cookies, we never heard any comments about the complexities of performing the pairwise comparisons.
All of the examples mentioned here illustrate that you can have fun in the classroom by being creative and having passion. This should lead to an environment where students are more likely to learn, understand, remember and implement what is being taught. As editor of "Issues in Education," I urge individuals to write about their successful examples of experiential learning that display passion and having fun in the classroom!
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Robert L. Nydick is associate professor and chairperson, Department of Decision and Information Technologies, Villanova University.
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