Lucas Adcock
Staff Writer
Leah Shinaberry, teacher at Green Bank Elementary-Middle School, hosts an elective class called Library Skills. Over the last month, her students have been working to collect research data to form a class debate on various topics that were offered to them. The class opted for the topic of: Tomatoes vs. Apples.
When was the last time you debated which one is better? Turns out there’s a plethora of information to come from researching the two. The class was divided into two groups consisting of students from sixth – eighth grade, all of whom prepared a month’s worth of research into persuading their side.
At the start of the project, Shinaberry instructed the students to become familiar with the debate podcast “Smash, Boom, Best.” From this, they derived the debate format – Round one: the Declaration of Greatness, followed by the other team’s rebuttal. Round two: Micro-round. Round three: The Final 6.
The students sat quietly at the long desk, each of them readying themselves for the debate. The judge, Marsha Grimes, who is GBEMS’s Community in Schools representative, sat across from me. Team Apple to my left, Tomatoes on my right. The team selected at random to begin was Apples.
The students were nervous, boldly opening in song, the lyrics most persuasive – “Apples juicy, apples round, on the trees and on the ground, apples yellow, apples red, apple juice or pie or bread… Apples crunchy, apples sweet, apples are so good to eat, eat, eat.”
But their Declaration of Greatness had just begun. One of the girls stood, adopting a British accent, “Look out baby Sue, the tomato has stained your shirt! If you were eating an apple, it wouldn’t be there!” And to finish their Declaration, were some reasons why apples are just simply better than tomatoes:
“Eating apples can prevent a spike in blood sugar because of the amount of fiber in them,” one of the girls explained, followed by, “back in the 16 and 1700s, people actually died from eating tomatoes because of lead poisoning!” This was from the common use of pewter plates that contained lead. The tomatoes were so acidic that it could actually leach it to the surface of the plate, causing the lead content to surface and be digested.
Team Apple also added some intriguing health benefits of apples including: lowering the risk for diabetes and certain types of cancer, fiber content, and many uses of the fruit, from hydration to exfoliation techniques. They finished strong with a simple statement: “On cartoons, you always see people getting hit by tomatoes, but never apples.” Ask yourself, “why is that?”
Team Tomato’s rebuttal came quickly, explaining the frustration and absurdity of apple genetics and how planting the seed of one apple may not yield the same type.
“When you plant tomatoes, you can regrow an identical version.” This could provide a more precise yield for farmers.
While they were on par with Apples at the opening of their Declaration, there was no song in the beginning. They presented the facts. “Tomatoes,” they said, “have a higher content of Vitamins C and A, as well as Lycopene, which promotes healthy cell-defenses.”
But the team’s direction had suddenly narrowed, straying away from defensive tactics.
“Apples,” they accused, “are more calorie-dense than tomatoes. They contain more carbohydrates and are higher in calories and sugar. Not to mention how much lower they are in potassium, which supports muscle growth.”
It was fact after fact, the cold hard truth against apples. Until their cold-shoulder closing statement left the mic on the floor – “If only apples could – ketch-up.”
Team one’s rebuttal was then directed at the argument which claimed that tomatoes have 2,000 or more variants than apples. A member of Team Apple stood to refute, clearing her throat. “So, if there are 10,000 variants of tomatoes, why do they all taste the same? And there are only 95 calories in a medium-sized apple.”
Time was up. Round one had ended. It was all fast – all a blur, and the judge scribbled something hidden beneath her paper. Who received the point?
For the Micro-round, the students were given a short story, but only every-other sentence within that story. Their task was to fill in each missing sentence with something relevant on their topic. Team Tomato went first, even having one of their team members acting out the story as they went along, which, by the way, was Oscar-worthy within itself.
Team Apple conveyed a mystery story that involved apple-baked goods. The round’s point was awarded, and the final round had begun.
Once each team laid out their six most relevant words for the final round, the team who secured the win was – Team Apple!
“And by the skin of their teeth,” our judge, Ms. Grimes, said.
Congratulations to Team Apple and to all the students who worked so hard on this project. Keep up the good work.
