Who is a scientist?

A teacher makes an announcement, “A major discovery has been found when looking at the mirror before the lesson.” This attention grabber pulls students into the lesson in order to determine ... See More

A teacher makes an announcement, “A major discovery has been found when looking at the mirror before the lesson.” This attention grabber pulls students into the lesson in order to determine what has been discovered. I found this article to be very informative in regards to showing students they are capable of conducting, experimenting, and being a scientist themselves. Students were asked to build and write about what they considered a scientist to be. Through these observations students were presented with numerous stereotypes that are presented about scientists. Upon evaluation the teacher used the “two stars and a wish method” to have their students critique other students work. Students left two positive comments and a question about the sculpture on an index card. Allowing children to observe and evaluate each other’s work is a technique I plan on using within my own classroom. I cannot wait to try this lesson with my own students and show them they are capable of more than they realize.

What Does a Scientist Look Like????

Fourth graders were given play dough and asked to sculpt what they thought a scientist looked like. They were also give an index card to write about the scientist. This revealed a lot of s... See More

Fourth graders were given play dough and asked to sculpt what they thought a scientist looked like. They were also give an index card to write about the scientist. This revealed a lot of stereotypical scientists. The teachers used the “two stars and a wish” method of having the students evaluate each other’s sculptures. They left two positive comments and a question about the sculpture on a card. This is a very neat way to have students critique each other!! After this they did research and a report on a modern day scientist.