Math/Science

In this assignment, I posed a question to the students: What does a scientist look like? They were given a white sheet of paper and crayons/markers to draw their answer.

The students in Bev ____’s second grade class really enjoyed this assignment. Art is a large part of the classroom and they love to create things. We did this project in place of their morning journal writing on a day when Bev was absent. Every student went right to work without hesitation. Everyone seemed to have some sort of concept about a scientist.

First, a few general observations. Every male student in the class drew a male scientist of some sort, while the females were split half and half. Most involved chemicals of some sort and were wearing a labcoat or protective clothing. Their perceptions of scientists came from many different places.

The first picture by Amy is interesting for a number of reasons. Although she didn’t have time to finish her drawing, she definitely knew the details. Her scientist was a female, but instead of being in a laboratory, she was outside. She was a bird scientist. Sometimes, she taught birds to do tricks and she knew about sickness. In further questioning, Amy told me that she had a scientist friend. The interesting part is that this scientist was younger than Amy. She wouldn’t elaborate much on her friend, but said she plays with her every once in awhile. Amy’s conception of a scientist is definitely influenced by this friend’s declaration. To her, scientists come in all different shapes and sizes.

Chelsea had a little different twist on the scientist idea. Her picture was a male with frizzy hair in a white labcoat, holding a glass bottle. She later told me this was Albert Einstein. He is located in a laboratory and is mixing a formula. When I asked about the type of clothes he was wearing, she said "scientist pants, scientist shoes, etc." It seems that Albert Einstein would be a person that a second grader would not be familiar with, but Chelsea proves that wrong.

In Kent’s picture, we see much less focus on the actual person and more focus on what is happening to the scientist. He puts two scientists and a robot on the same page in pencil, connected by lines in orange and blue marker. The scientists do not resemble the typical labcoat scientist as with many other students. Kent explained to me that it was because the two scientists had electrocuted themselves. They had been using a chemistry set and mixed up the wrong potion, causing an explosion. These scientists were age 20 and had been wearing labcoats before their unfortunate demise. Kent stated that scientists had to do dangerous things sometimes. To not make mistakes, a robot is needed instead of a human. The robot on the left hand side of the page represents the experiment that went right and did not explode. His view on scientists is one of mistakes that can be corrected by robots or computers.

The final picture by Erica was also quite interesting. She had a female scientist that was 29-30 years old. She is wearing a labcoat with a nametag and gloves, but is also wearing a headlamp. This means that she can work with her hands free but still with light. Again, like the others, she is mixing chemicals, specifically baking soda and vinegar. Finally, Erica stated that this scientist was in a laboratory in Virginia. Upon further questioning, she answered that she once saw a picture of a scientist in a magazine. The woman was in a laboratory in Virginia. Hence, that was where scientists had their laboratories. It is interesting to see how much influence a simple magazine picture can have on the thoughts of a second grade student.

The pictures submitted by the students were very intriguing, especially in regard to my future teaching. This project will be useful as a base line or reference point in my teaching about science and scientists. How can we help students to see that we do science every day and are scientists every day in all that we do? Science is not a field of study relegated to the sterile laboratories in pictures far away. Science is accessible to all students.