The 20-minute timer is about to go off. Some students rush to finish their introduction paragraphs, hands cramping, while others look like they’re moving in slow motion. 3..2..1..RING! “Raise your hand if you are done”. No one’s hand goes up. Does this situation sound look familiar? Nowadays, students are less efficient, barely productive, and increasingly distracted. Need a transitional sentence here, could throw in a question, So what is the cause?  Since the pandemic, technology has played a huge role in education but not for the better. The Chromebooks scholars use daily have made students more prone to distractions, which is one of the many reasons why a greater number of teachers have started to allow the usage of gum in their classes. After COVID-19, grades have shown to be worse than ever. But as students recover academically from these years, their backpacks are getting loaded with gum. Almost all adolescents these days carry a pack of gum with them, either in their carry-ons or in their backpacks. Gum has been the number one tool for helping kids focus in school, with accuracy and pace. As a result, students have shown to be more productive and focused on their work when chewing gum, versus in classes where they are not allowed to chew gum. 

The initial hypothesis was that if students ate food in their classes, they would be more productive because food energizes and helps with distractions. Therefore, while observing the classrooms of Brooklawn Middle School data was collected on the question, does being allowed to eat food in class affect a class’s overall mood and productivity? However, when analyzing the data collected, the results were varied. Students had replaced snacks with gum. In some classes, no one was snacking on food, but everyone was focused. In another classroom, 2 girls without food were giggling and scrolling through Instagram. The phone was covertly placed behind one of their Chromebooks, out of the teacher’s eyesight. This same situation occurred in another English class. Kids at a round table were doing collaborative work and talking loudly. In response, the teacher yelled, “You can’t sit together anymore, because you can’t work together”. Different behaviors continued for almost every single classroom, whether they had access to food or not. Now looking back at the data, other questions were formed. With the help of online access, a new hypothesis was created; students are more productive and focused on their work when chewing gum, versus in classes where students are not allowed to chew gum. Hence, revising the question of whether or not chewing gum in class helps with focus, the hypothesis was explored. 

Researchers had given a 30-minute recording with a sequence of numbers for 2 groups of 20 people to each listen to (Kraft). One of the groups was allowed to chew gum, and the other group was not. Soon after listening, the participants had to recall and chant the numbers they remembered. In the article, Chewing Gum May Improve Concentration, the results showed that “the one group who chewed gum had higher accuracy rates and faster reaction times”, while the group who wasn’t given gum was less accurate and unfocused (Kraft). This experiment shows that gum can benefit student learning by engendering a higher level of concentration. Nevertheless, how does gum help enhance attentiveness? According to, Chewing Gum May Improve Concentration, “Gum increases the flow of oxygen to regions of the brain responsible for attention. More oxygen can keep people alert and improve their reflexes” (Kraft). This article entails that the more oxygen there is in the brain, the more attentive one can be. In addition, research has shown that pretending to chew gum, doesn’t provide the same effects. Only with gum's real flavor and texture can the brain stimulate a proper reaction. In further research into gum, factors such as the rate of chewing and taste were questioned. Does the taste or rate of chewing inflict different reactions, or do the results stay the same? In the article, Chewing Gum: Cognitive Performance, Mood, Well-being, and Associated Physiology, through different experiments and trials, lab charts show that “the rate of chewing, flavor, or cognitive performance do not moderate the enhancement of alertness and changes in sustained attention by chewing gum” (Allen). Moreover, this suggests that greater motor activity does not exaggerate the effect of chewing any type of gum. 

Students in class with permission and access to gum are more productive and efficient than students who do not. Gum has proven to be a useful tool for students in a learning environment. However, quite a few teachers these days still do not allow gum in their classrooms. So, instead of banning gum, educators should explore different disciplinary actions if a student were to violate the classroom’s code of conduct. In doing so, scholars can learn to have more accountability, while increasing school averages. This could ultimately help future generations part with their technological distractions and improve their focus, leading to a more beneficial learning environment. Henceforth, with the usage of gum in class, a situation more like this could occur; a 50-minute timer is about to go off. Most of the students were almost done with their work and their essays were full of life. The scholars were concentrated and focused throughout their workshop session, so when the timer went off and the teacher asked, “Raise your hand if you are done”, everyone’s hands went up.

Works Cited

Chewing Gum. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4449949/.

Scientific American. 26 Mar. 2023, www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/gum-chewing-may-improve-concentrati-13-03-26/#:~:text=Teachers%20might%20want%20to%20think,substance%20might%20help%20students%20concentrate.&text=The%20researchers%20say%20that%20gum,the%20brain%20responsible%20for%20attention. Accessed 26 Mar. 2023.