Big Bird, a protagonist of the kid’s television show “Sesame Street,” skyped with an Eastern Michigan University political science class Thursday.
Big Bird is known for teaching children the alphabet and how to count. He’s also known to roller skate, and in 1976 he was even on the game show “Hollywood Squares.”
In this instance, however, Big Bird was played by Christopher Cooper, a professor of political science and a department head at Western Carolina University in North Carolina. Cooper and EMU political science professor Jeffrey Bernstein have been skyping each other’s classes to chat about their home states. The classes focused on comparing gender gaps and economic appeals across the states.
EMU junior Sara Box said the bet between the two classes focused primarily on how many votes President Barack Obama would receive in Michigan and in North Carolina during this year’s election, and since Cooper lost he had to wear the suit. Because of the hype surrounding Gov. Mitt Romney’s jab at PBS and the possibility of “Sesame Street” being cancelled, the Big Bird costume took some time to reach Cooper. As a result, the Big Bird lecture was postponed a couple of times.
“There must have been a back order on Big Bird costumes because we had to wait,” she said.
Box said the two classes teamed up for the semester to collaborate on assignments and projects. The students have been working in small groups of about two to three people from each of the classes.
Box said the students made use of numerous technology devices to help with the process. She said texting, phone calls, emails and Skype have played a significant role in teaming up and getting in touch with the other students.
Box also said Cooper has skyped their classroom at least four times throughout the semester.
“It’s good and the professors are awesome,” Box said in regards to this teaching atmosphere.
Bernstein and Cooper decided to teach their classes in a connected manner to see how well that type of atmosphere would work. The two professors are experimenting with the classes for a thesis project they are working on together.
According to Box, the professors have mentioned if the experiment is successful, the two will look at doing the connecting classes project more often.
Big Bird entered the frame Thursday with a protruding yellow beak bobbing up and down in front of his computer camera.
In Bernstein’s class, cameras flashed and giggles from the students echoed through the classroom.
Cooper’s face was still slightly visible in the costume, and he mugged for the cameras. Bernstein stepped away from the projector, and smiling at the screen said, “Wow, that looks great.”
The professors joked about how they were going to post photos of the occasion on Facebook.
Bernstein asked Cooper what the consequence will be for his class losing the bet.
“Beatings and floggings as well,” Cooper said jokingly.
Cooper and Bernstein then discussed why the Obama campaign was so successful.
Mobilization was good for Obama,” Cooper said.
With social science being used, Cooper said the Democrats had “edge.” He also said Obama’s supporters and the high number of volunteers, including the door-to-door voting plan questionnaires just a day before the election, made a big difference.
“It was personal and more professional,” he said. “The fundamentals were better with the Obama campaign.”
Bernstein said the Republican campaign was a “demographic train wreck,” especially with the Latino vote: “73 percent of Latinos voted for Obama this election.”
Big Bird’s session with Bernstein’s class was brief, but perhaps Big Bird has the ability to do just about anything, even teach political science to a classroom filled with college students.
