Fifth grade was a memorable one for me. I was attending school in a small rural town in the South after moving the year before from the Chicago suburbs. Fourth grade was at the elementary school, but 5th grade was at the middle school and we had a lot more freedom than the year before. Our classrooms opened to the outdoors rather than indoor hallways and just going outdoors every hour for a few minutes made a difference. Up until that year my favorite subject was language arts, but that year, science quickly zoomed to #1. And that was because of a new young science teacher, fresh out of college, Mr. Largo. You never quite knew what would happen in his classes and that caused us to have a level of anticipation every time we approached his room.
One day we showed up and he told us we would be studying circuits. He told us about circuits and diagramed one on the chalkboard. We talked about the circuits that we use every day. Then he told us we would make one. From behind his desk, Mr Largo pulled out a block of wood that had an enormous nail sticking out of it. He also brought forth a nine volt battery and some wires. But the real surprise was the hot dog. A big old fashioned hot dog in a serious casing. We were all puzzled for a moment until he told us we would be making a hot dog cooker.
He had the class instruct him on how to build this cooker. We argued a bit, but in the end, it really was the simplest of circuits. He impaled the hot dog on the nail, connected the wires to the battery and to the nail, and then we waited and watched. At first, not much seemed to be happening, but after awhile it was clear that nail was throwing off heat and cooking that hot dog. The hot dog started to sweat. It started to plump up. It started to smell. We were so excited that this thing we just built was actually working. Who goes to class and gets to cook a hot dog?!
Finally, when it was clear that it was a fully cooked dog, Mr. Largo went to shut off the circuit. Then someone yelled, “NO. LET IT GO!!!” And then the whole class started chanting “LET IT GO! LET IT GO!” I imagine at that point Mr. Largo knew what would happen if he let it go, but looking at the sea of animated 10 year olds, he made a split second decision not to stifle our curiosity. He let it go.
The hot dog grew in size. We were silent, but the tension in the room was palpable. We could hear the hot dog sizzle. Hot dog odor wafted by every desk. We had a hard time containing ourselves. What would happen? The hot dog kept growing and growing and then it happened. That hot dog blew up into a thousand pieces. There were shrieks. There were cries. Some kids were covered in hot dog shards and screamed as they pulled pieces of processed meat from their shirts. Others were not hit and were laughing and shouting with glee. Kids threw their hands in the air. Something magnificent had happened. There were hot dog pieces on the floor. On the desks. On the windows. On the books. On the ceiling. The entire room smelled of cooked hot dog. And we were the happiest bunch of 5th graders you could imagine. Even the kids hit by the hot dog pieces quickly recovered and were smiling and laughing. It felt like we had broken the rules and that only added to the drama.
We all looked at Mr. Largo. He was shaking his head, smiling, and laughing. He tried to look serious, but fell back into laughing. He looked around the room and saw that he had quite a mess on his hands. He attempted to quiet us down with limited effectiveness and had us pick up all the little pieces of hot dog, but the room still smelled of hot dog for the better part of a week.
I imagine the principal knew about the hot dog escapade. How could he not? The entire class was talking about it. To other kids, to other teachers, to parents. I could imagine some department head or principal telling Mr. Largo not to do that again because it created too much of a mess, but no one seemed to do that because we had crazy adventures in that class the rest of the year. Mr. Largo let us put our curiosity into action. That 5th grade science room was a place of joy, laughing, community, and tremendous learning.
Thank you, Mr. Largo. I still smile every time I see a hot dog. I understand circuits. And I still enjoy a good mess.