>> Kathy McGuigan: Hello, my
name is Katherine McGuigan,
and I'm from the Professional
Learning Office at the Library
of Congress, and I'd like to
welcome you to today's webinar.
This is the last in our
series on STEM resources,
and tonight's webinar is
called Parallel Primary Sources
for Enhancing STEM experiences.
Some housekeeping items before
we get started, as you know,
we'll be recording this program
and we'll serve the recording
as soon as we're able.
As this event will be
recorded, any questions
or other participant
contributions may be publicly
available as part of
the Library's archives.
You'll have the opportunity
to talk to each other
and to our presenters via chat,
so let's get started with that.
While I'm introducing
our speakers today,
you can use the chat
to tell us your name,
where you're joining us from
and your subject
area and grade level.
Please make sure you select to
everyone or "All Participants"
in the to box, and as
I mentioned before,
today's program is called
Parallel Primary Sources
for Enhancing STEM Experiences.
Our presenters today,
you may have been here
for the other webinars,
but I'd like to reintroduce
to you Peter DeCraene
and Lesley Anderson.
They are two incredibly
educational leaders who come
to us via the Albert Einstein
Distinguished Educator
fellowship program from
the Department of Energy,
and I'll put that into the chat
if you are interested
in that program.
Peter is a veteran math and
computer science teacher
with more than three decades
of experience in middle school
and high school classrooms.
In 2011, he was awarded
the Presidential Award
for Excellence in Mathematics
and Science Teaching.
It's the highest honor
bestowed by the US government
for K-12 STEM Educators.
Lesley Anderson has
taught chemistry, biology,
environmental science and
math to high school students
at the High Tech High
Schools in the San Diego area
for several years, and served
as an instructional coach
supporting other educators.
Outside the classroom.
She's worked with NASA to
analyze polar climates,
studied sea turtles with
the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration,
and journeyed to the South Pole
as a polar trek teacher
researcher.
Sorry about that.
So I'm going to turn things
over, I believe, to Peter,
and thank you for
being here today.
>> Lesley Anderson:
Thank you, Kathy.
I'm actually going to kick
us off today, so we're going
to start off by reminding
ourselves how we're going
to use the
observe-reflect-question
protocol in STEM
uing STEM topics.
We're going to do a process
called parallel primary source
analysis, so that we can
observe scientific phenomenon
from multiple perspectives,
and we're going
to show you a few examples
and how you might connect this
to your science classrooms,
your STEM classrooms.
Go ahead and go to
our next slide.
Thank you, Peter.
So parallel primary sources are
when we look at primary sources
about the same or
about similar topics.
This enables students
to have an opportunity
to closely examine
multiple items
and make comparisons
between those.
Our science and engineering
practices
for the next-generation science
standards really emphasize being
able to make that compare and
contrast, and so we'll talk
about some examples for that,
and this also allows students
to have a focus on
multiple perspectives,
thinking about not only
their own perspective
and understanding the resource,
but the different perspectives
from these different
primary sources.
So let's take a take a look
at our first primary source.
So I want you to take just
a moment to closely notice
and examine what you
see in this picture.
There is a QR code that's
located on there if you would
like to zoom in a little bit
closer on this particular image,
but I just want you to take
30 seconds to closely look
and see what you
notice in this picture.
All right, you got
about 30 seconds just
to take a close look
at this picture
and see what things
that you're noticing.
I'm going to show you one more
primary source, and again,
you're just going to take
30 seconds to look closely.
I want you to think
about what do you see
and what do you notice?
There's another QR code here and
Kathy is going to put the link
for this particular primary
source in the chat as well.
All right.
So I intentionally showed
you one image first,
and I gave you some time just
to get a chance to interact
with the image, and I
showed you a second image.
I'm going to have
Peter put up a screen
so we can see both images side
by side, and you're also going
to notice a little bit of
an item record description.
And thank you, Tara,
for getting us started.
What I'd love for
you to share with us
in the chat is a
bit of a reflection.
What do you see, what do you
think, and what do you wonder
by looking at these two
parallel primary sources next
to each other?
So Tara started us off saying
I think of hurricane damage,
as my husband is
from New Orleans.
I noticed the flag and
cross and red graffiti
so I assume there
were fatalities there.
Anyone else notice some of those
in that first particular
picture,
some of those same details
or additional details?
And great observation thinking
we're talking about New Orleans.
Total destruction?
Ah, interesting.
The first thought for the first
one was that this was a tornado,
and what made you
think it was a tornado?
Any thoughts about
the comparison
between these two
primary sources?
Leanne notices trees in both
the photo and the mural.
Matt says that the
house on the left looks
like it was moved off
of its foundation.
Great observations.
So with your students, you can
use this as an opportunity just
to get them to practice
close-looking,
practice getting an opportunity
to get really involved
in understanding a primary
source and taking time
to notice what are some
of the details in each one
of these primary sources
and how are they connected?
This might also be an
opportunity to talk
about natural disasters and make
connections in that way as well.
This is a shared experience
in Puerto Rico, Tara says,
and then in America,
both images side by side.
Tragedy, natural disasters and
heartbreak happen worldwide.
Yeah, thank you so
much for sharing that.
So Peter, do you want
to go to our next slide?
So that was our first
example of looking
at a parallel primary
source analysis
with side-by-side comparisons.
We have two different
perspectives, right,
one in which we're seeing kind
of the graphic, horrific look
at a hurricane, and then
the other one, again,
same natural disaster, but
we're talking about the ways
that we're going to be able to
lift ourselves up afterwards.
So this particular thinking
routine of comparing
and contrasting different images
is a great conversation starter
for students.
I also love this as being a
multidisciplinary approach
for elementary school.
How could you combine and get
the both the science literacy
aspect as well as bringing
in the humanitarian side?
And then, at the secondary
level, how might you connect
with teachers outside of
your discipline in order
to have these really rich
conversations with students?
We're going to take a
look at another example
of parallel primary
sources, and this time,
I'm going to have us use
our primary source analysis.
What do you observe,
reflect and question?
So just take a moment to look at
this image, and I will tell you,
this is not a parallel primary
source that you're looking at.
This is a stereoscope
or stereoscopic image,
so these are two pictures
that are pretty much
exactly the same.
One of them was taking a
couple of inches to the left,
so you can visualize it through
like a 3D viewing glasses,
so I'm not having you look
and spot the differences
between these two images
next to each other.
I just want you to take a moment
to use your primary source
analysis tool to observe,
reflect, and question, and go
ahead and type your thoughts
and responses in the chat.
Thank you, Leanne.
She notices that we have the
notes a slightly damaged house
on the bottom left.
Yeah, I would say
that's pretty damaged.
The Johnstown Flood.
We have the Johnstown
calamity written here.
Maybe we're talking about
the Johnstown Flood.
We see a tree in the window.
Yes, that's not normally
something we see in a house.
Much impact, one can feel the
complete tragedy that occurred.
Very interesting.
What else do you notice?
What questions do you have?
So Tara, we're just taking a
moment to look at this image,
and say what we observe
and what do we question?
What do we think is
happening in this picture?
Yeah, there's one glass window
that remains sort of intact,
very interesting observation.
How might that have happened?
Are there details in the image?
Maybe a house torn
off its frame.
I'm going to share
one more image.
Peter, if you want to
go to the next slide.
And I'm going to see
if you notice anything
new in this second image?
Tara, great question, how
can they label it a slightly
damaged house?
It seems a little more
than slightly damaged.
What new observations
and questions do you have
from this second image?
Great question, Matt.
Who is the gentleman?
Where did he come from?
He was not in the last picture.
So we might, with students,
use this as an opportunity
to get them to think critically
about what actually was
happening at the time
when these two pictures
were taken.
Thinking about the photographer,
what were the choices
that the photographer was
making in this moment?
PRR, from a railroad?
Great question.
It looks like a tank
in the picture.
Interesting.
So I love that this is
generating new questions,
and again, we have a
really similar perspective
on the exact same event that
we're taking a look at here,
and we're already
starting to develop
and create some new questions.
So Peter, go ahead and
go to our next slide.
So with students, a
very fun activity is
to play the Spot
the Difference game.
You know, in the back
of Highlights magazine,
they used to have the
two pictures and you have
to circle the five different
things that are different?
Giving students an
opportunity to do this
with a real life example is an
awesome opportunity for them
to practice and hone their
critical thinking skills,
so what we have for you in
the chat here is a slide deck
with just two slides in
it, and it's the two images
that I just shared with you.
If you open that in a new
window, and you toggle back
and forth very quickly between
the two slides, you'll start
to notice some of the things
that have shifted and moved
between one of the
images and the other.
In fact, this is what I
was doing when I was trying
to figure out where
the differences were
between the first picture
and the second picture,
and I noticed a few small
items that had moved only
because I was toggling back
and forth really
quickly between here.
So feel free to practice that on
another slide, but my question
for you is going to be which of
these two photos do you think
was taken first?
And what evidence do you
have that that's the order
in which those two
pictures were taken?
So Peter, go ahead and put up
our two next to each other.
I've just taken one half
of the stereoscopic picture
so you can see them next to
each other if you don't want
to be toggling back
and forth on a screen,
and see if you can
spot the differences.
Most importantly, which of these
two pictures do you think was
taken first and why?
And if you want to
start off in the chat
by telling us what
differences you're noticing
between the two pictures,
that's a perfect place to start.
Matt says that the bottom
left window is more damaged
in one of them.
Ooh, interesting noticing.
The bottom left window.
What other differences
do you notice?
You think that there's a chair
in the lower right hand window
in the left photo,
but not in the right.
Maybe it was removed.
Tara notices that there's a
man and one of the pictures
but he's not in the other.
Great observation, Mercedes.
The perspective is
slightly different
like the camera was moved.
What makes you think that
the perspective is different
and that the camera
might have moved
between these two pictures?
And then the bonus question
for that would be how might you
get students to reenact this?
If they think and
they're convinced
that the camera perspective
has changed, how might you set
up something in the classroom
to actually reenact this
so that students can show you
the angle in which they think
that the camera has
been changed?
The smokestacks in the
background on one of them.
Oh, interesting observation.
So we can see smokestacks
in one.
We cannot see them in the other.
Maybe a swivel perspective.
I'm also noticing in the front
corner we have a different
foreground in one of
the pictures than we do,
so perhaps not only swiveling,
but also moving forward.
Anyone else noticing
things towards the front
and the foreground?
There are objects in front of
the tank that when you look back
and forth between
the pictures looks
like one is closer
than the other?
Oh, interesting observations.
You're practicing
the toggle method.
I like that, that decision.
What do you notice
about the wood panel
on the bottom right-hand side?
There's like a light-colored
kind
of white-looking panel that's up
on a slope on the bottom right.
What do you notice about that?
This might be a private
chat just to me
but I can share this
out as well.
It looks like one
of them is dirty
and the other one is more clean.
Growth over the one on the left
and cleaned up on the right.
Beautiful.
Thanks, Margaret.
Anyone want to take
a guess as to
which of these two
photos was taken first
and what evidence
might you suggest?
The one with the man or
the one without the man?
The one with a man could
have been taken first
because of the discoloration
it has.
Oh, interesting.
So thinking about like the
quality of the photograph
that we're looking at.
Liam, why do you think the one
with the man was taken first?
So when I've done this
with students, I have a lot
of students that will look at
that window that would have been
in the top left hand corner of
the house, and in the picture
with the man, it looks like
there's maybe a curtain hanging
on a curtain rod, but it's
missing in the picture
without the man, so I get
students who make all sorts of,
you know, stories up about,
well, maybe the man went
up there, and he took it down,
and so we think the picture
with the man happened first
and then the picture after,
but then I have other
students who say, well,
the picture on the
right-hand side,
that little wood board seems
really clean, and so maybe
that picture happened first,
and the man went up there
and hung the curtain
in the little --
the curtain on the curtain rod.
And Ann's looking at
thinking about the chair.
So yeah, was the
chair used to get
into the house or
out of the house?
These are really great
ideas, and allows students
to really make connections
and interpret what they
think is happening.
Let's go to our next
slide, Peter.
Awesome, thank you.
So I actually use
this activity to teach
about the fossil record, which
I am assuming you didn't think I
was going in that
direction with.
So when I teach the fossil
record, I talk to students
about how fossils are
like a snapshot in time.
We just have one picture and
one image of what was happening
in this great fossil record,
and the opportunity for science
to -- scientists to get
together and determine the order
in which these photographs are
taken is the process of figuring
out how evolution and the fossil
record has been developed.
And so when I get
students together,
and I show them these pictures
side by side next to each other,
and they have to toggle back
and forth and make arguments
about which one they
think happened first,
and which one they
think happened second,
this is exactly what
scientists are doing
when they're discussing
what they think is happening
with the evidence in
the fossil record.
So as we get new photos,
as we discover new fossils
that we need to add
to the fossil record,
we have a better understanding
about the sequence of events
that are happening at a
particular moment in time,
and so when you get
new photographs,
we can maybe figure out,
if we found a picture
in between those two, it might
help lead us to decide the order
in which these particular
pictures were taken.
So of course, I had to ask
myself some questions in looking
at these two pictures.
Where might I go to get more
information about the two
that I could find at the
library's collections?
I went to the Ask a
Librarian feature.
If you haven't used this
before, I highly recommend it.
Our librarians are amazing, and
they're a wealth of knowledge,
but I actually got pushed out
to a different site in order
to learn a little bit
more about the family
that lived in this home.
This is the Schultz
house, and this was
in fact the Johnstown
Flood, but all six people
who lived inside the Schultz
house survived this incident
with a tree impaling
their house.
It's an amazing story, and
this is the same house,
the same picture, but
from yet another angle,
and actually even a
different photographer.
And so now when we add
this fossil or this picture
to our record, it starts to
tell us a little bit more
about the story, and we can
have more conversations using
that evidence with
students to figure out well,
did this picture
happen before or after?
And what evidence might
we spot in this new image
that gives us a better
understanding
about the story in history?
Go ahead and go to our
last slide here, Peter.
So again, this was
another example
about side-by-side comparisons.
We looked at a primary
source analysis.
We did it twice, and it
was the same perspective,
maybe just slightly a couple
inches or a feet here or there,
but we have really
the same perspective
that we're looking at,
but our thinking routine
that we were talking
through was sequencing.
What is the order and what
is the evidence that we have
that tells us that this
is the correct order
in which the photos were taken?
I think it's a great opportunity
to discuss the nature
of science, getting
students to think critically
about seeing small pieces
of evidence and information,
but it's also a great
content connection
to earth science
and to evolution.
I'm going to pass it
over to Peter now,
who's going to share a
couple of other examples
of parallel primary
sources with you.
>> Peter DeCraene:
Thanks, Leslie.
Before I do that, I was just
thinking some other place
that we have information
about the Johnstown Flood was
in Chronicling America,
and I don't have a
link immediately handy,
but that's another way you
could use primary sources.
The causes of the Johnstown
Flood are actually a fairly
interesting engineering
aspect to talk about as well.
And that was a railroad car
in the picture, not a tank.
Okay, let's go on.
So, let's take a look at
another set of primary sources.
Speaking of Chronicling America,
here's an ad from a newspaper,
and what I'd like you to do is
just take a moment to observe,
reflect, and question and go
ahead and put your observations
in the chat, anything --
things you want to think about,
make questions about
it, ask about it.
What do you see in there?
Ann's question, cosmetics
containing radium?
Oh and thank you, Kathy and
Mike, for putting in links
to Chronicling America
for the Johnstown Flood.
The beauty ad is
probably radioactive.
Thank you, Tara.
Dorcas [phonetic] says
old beauty print ad,
black and white.
Let's take a look at some of
the text that's in that ad.
I know it's a little bit small,
so let me zoom in a little bit.
Zooming in on something
is another way
to show some additional detail.
Sometimes getting a big picture
is way -- a good way to start,
but then zooming in on something
you want everybody to focus
on is a good way to help
narrow the focus a little bit
from the large picture.
So I'll go ahead and leave that
there and give you a moment
to read that and again, any
new observations, reflections,
ideas you think this might be
about, ideas you might have
about how this -- what
was going on here?
Thank you, Margaret.
Very dated ideas of science,
in quotes, science in quotes.
Matt would like to know
more about those doctors.
Thank you, Matt.
Before they really knew or cared
about health standards
for products.
Thank you, Tara.
Dorcas says radium makes me
think of the Radium Girls movie.
Thank you.
I'm wondering what
would have happened
if I'd only showed you
the first two paragraphs
of this instead of all four.
How -- would that
change your perspective?
And I feel like you're
really understanding this
from a modern perspective.
Margaret's pointed out actually
from a modern perspective,
I find this quite horrifying.
You've also reviewed
several books on Marie Curie.
Right. So you're bringing
in your own knowledge,
the stuff that you bring with
you and that's really good.
Dan's saying this is an ad
presented as a news article.
Yeah, and that's
still happening,
and it's something
we need to think
about whenever we're
looking at primary sources.
A question we've got to ask
is, where is it coming from?
Who's -- who made this
or wrote this and why?
What's happening here?
And that's the other thing.
Margaret, I wanted
to mention this also.
One of the beauty parts
about observe, reflect,
and question is that any student
can get involved in this,
regardless of their background,
because everybody
can notice something.
Everybody can ask a
question about something.
So even if a student is not
feeling great about being
in their science or their math
class, they can still say oh,
I see that it says
something about radium,
and they can bring something
of themselves in there.
They say I know radium is not a
good thing, and then I wonder,
why did they put radium
into beauty cream?
So there's a lot of ways that
we can use primary sources
to really invite more students
in to bring their whole selves
into our classroom,
especially if a science or math
or a STEM classroom is
not someplace they feel
comfortable automatically.
Any other thoughts on
this particular ad?
I'm going to go back
one to just the ad
because I find the ad itself,
the images on the self
pretty compelling.
Thank you for the link, Kathy.
So we're talking about
parallel primary sources.
Let's look at a second
primary source.
Thank you, Leanne.
Makes me wonder when we
learned that radium was bad.
So here's the next
primary source.
This is just a photograph that
also appeared in a newspaper,
and I will tell you this
is also about radium,
and it involves women
just like the first one.
Any thoughts or questions here?
They look skeptical.
Thank you, Leanne.
So there's not a lot
going on in this picture,
and usually when you're doing
a primary source analysis,
you want something
more to get into?
Oh, I see some people are
having some thoughts on this.
Cool. Tara says probably
workers who made the products
or ladies to try new products.
Not sure. Thank you, Tara.
Kathy's asking what
makes you say that?
Leanne, yeah, you're saying
they look skeptical or annoyed?
Why? How do you know that?
And that's a really
good question to ask.
Thank you for reminding
us about that, Kathy.
Anytime someone, a student or
someone, makes a conjecture
about an image, why
do they say that?
What is it about the image
in this particular case
that makes them look
skeptical or annoyed?
You want to push that
thinking a little bit,
one of the math standards
is about creating
and critiquing arguments, and so
when someone makes an argument
or makes a statement that
could be an implication
or an inference as
opposed to a fact you want
to push their thinking
a little bit,
and so that's a really
good thing to ask about.
Dorcas thinks maybe they're
dissatisfied customers.
Could be. Let's zoom
out a little bit to show
where this picture came from.
Thank you, Leanne.
You're looking at their facial
expressions and body language.
Yeah. Let's zoom
out a little bit.
This is the article that
went with that picture.
And I just realized, Leslie,
we have some pretty
horrific things happening
in our webinar today.
Let's zoom in a little bit
on the captions so
you can read that.
I'll give you a moment
to read the caption.
And I've got the banner
for the newspaper as well.
Tara says their expressions
and demeanor now makes sense.
Yes. They're definitely
not putting their hands
to their faces as the
woman in the beauty ad was.
Someone asked earlier when we
found out that radium was bad,
and I want you to notice in
here the date is pretty visible
in this image that I've
put up, and it's 1938.
The previous one, the ad,
was actually from 1918.
Yes, it's also on Valentine's
Day, right, this one.
The earlier one was 20
years prior to that.
So there was certainly
some information that came
out in the 20 years
about what was happening,
so thank you for that.
Does anyone want to think
about how you might use this
in your STEM classroom?
How you might use something like
this to show that the difference
in -- this particular
one in fact,
how would you use something
about radium poisoning
in your class?
Ah, Leanne is asking now I want
to know what sort of factory
in Ottawa, Illinois was
producing something with radium.
Thank you.
Does anyone have a guess
about what was being
produced in Ottawa?
Matt's suggesting watches.
How do you know, Matt?
What makes you think that?
They used to -- they used radium
to make the numbers
light up in the dark.
Yes. Definitely Also they
used it in certain makeups
for stage plays to make people
glow a little bit on stage.
Any ideas about how you might
use this in your STEM classes?
Thank you, Margaret.
There was a book about watches
and radium a few years ago.
They would look the brushes
with the radium on them
as they painted dials.
Yeah. Kathleen is wondering
about EPA/FDA oversight
and approval.
That's a great thing
to get into.
There's a whole lot of science
and research you could get
into about those
kinds of approvals.
Dorcas is suggesting
teaching science of radium,
the effects over time,
putting paintbrushes
to your lips, right.
Lesley says she'd
like to share this
with her students during
lab safety trainings,
that students learn
hy it's important not
to touch chemicals
to their face.
Yes. And certainly
not taste them.
Right. Matt's wondering
what sort
of justice did these
victims get?
That's a great question also.
And suddenly, we also have an
interdisciplinary opportunity
here because not only
do we have the science
and the chemistry behind the
radium, but we also can talk
about the social studies
aspect and what was going
on at that point in time.
It's interesting that the -- in
this article here, the superiors
for the one woman said,
"You're going to cause talk.
Sorry, you'll have to go."
So we also have some issues
there about labor laws,
and I think that's also could
be an important connection
to make for students as well.
Thank you, Leanne.
An article from The
Atlantic about a Superfund,
a century later, the factory
that poisoned the radium girls
is still a Superfund site.
Thank you.
Let's go on and talk about this,
summarize this a little bit.
Thank you, Margaret.
She probably wish she had
been fired a lot sooner.
Thank you.
And thank you, all, for
maintaining a sense of humor
through some of this
pretty gruesome --
the articles we found
for this webinar.
And Tara, thank you.
Yes. This always makes me
think of lead in paint as well.
Right. That's important.
And what an arbiter is?
Definitely.
There's a lot of connections
and a lot of ways for students
to bring themselves into this
and to bring their
own experiences
into these primary sources.
Thank you for that.
So again, this is a
sequence comparison,
showing one primary source
and letting that one kind
of simmer a little bit
for students, so we looked
at the beauty one first, and
by looking at the large picture
of it, we get one view.
By zooming in a little
bit, we get more detail.
And then we sequence and
look at the second one
that came 20 years later,
and it's definitely a change
in perspective, and that
brings up a lot of discussion
about the nature of science,
that in 1918, scientists knew
that radium got rid
of skin cancers.
That was something they
knew, so they thought oh,
this is wonderful for skin.
20 years later, we
realize, wait a minute,
not so wonderful
over the long term.
And then there's also
the content connections
in chemistry and biology.
Let's do one more.
I want to show you a picture --
some pictures from Alexander
Graham Bell's notebook.
These are pages are
dated from May 6th, 1878,
and one of the great things
about the Library of Congress is
that you've seen a
number of things tonight.
You've seen some
photographs, stereographs,
newspaper articles, and now
we're looking at a manuscript,
and the Library has
all of those kinds
of things available for us.
And Kathy just put in
a link about lead paint
from the teachers blog.
Going to the teachers' page
on the Library's website
and looking at the blogs there
gives lots of ideas about how
to use primary sources
in your classroom,
including STEM classes,
and all the different items
that you can find
like manuscripts
and newspapers and pictures.
There's videos, all sorts
of things to look at.
What do you notice about this
particular page of the notebook?
Anything in particular
that you want to say?
Let's look at the second page.
This is the very next
page in the notebook.
As you're thinking about
how it's going from one page
to the next, what
are you noticing?
Thanks for the additional
links, Mike.
I appreciate that.
Let's go to the very next
page in the notebook.
So that's three pages in a row.
Margaret's wondering if
he mentions Adams in 1878?
Yes, he does.
Dorcas is noticing the order
in which he's processing
his thoughts or his notes.
Maybe let's look at all
three pages together.
What do you notice?
What do you wonder?
Tara sees a lot of math.
Yup. Thank you.
And thank you for the
links again, Kathy.
Leanne's wondering does
that say angle of impact?
I believe on that third
notebook, it does.
It looks like it says angle
of impact equals 90 degrees.
Thank you, Dorcus.
You see the word Adams formulas.
Yeah.
Direct and tangential.
Thank you.
Yeah. It does take a little
bit of imagination to read some
of his handwriting, but
certainly, it's doable.
I also really appreciate
the fact
that the very first
diagram he's got
or the I guess the second one
on that first page is
completely scratched out,
and it says see over,
and he redoes it.
And that's fantastic.
And he makes a couple
more notes,
and then on the third one, he
does a whole another diagram
about it, and it looks
really well done.
Tara says genius
is what I think of.
They are often messy.
Yeah, but don't we want our
students to know that also
to realize that it's
okay to have a mess
as you're solving
a problem, right?
That's the nature of math and
science is that our first go
at it doesn't always work.
It's not the direction
we want to do --
we necessarily want to go.
Mike, yeah, we want
people to show their work,
and this is Alexander Graham
Bell showing his work,
and I really appreciate
that every iteration,
the diagram gets a
little bit better.
Before and after
impacts an image.
Yeah, he adds to them.
He has more information.
It's interesting.
I'll show you the next two
pages in the notebook also
because it's also interesting.
The page right after
that has this diagram.
Can anybody read what
it says at the top?
Investigate following cases.
Thank you, Leanne.
Thank you, Mike.
Yeah, that's what it says.
And isn't that amazing?
That's what we want our students
to do in our STEM classes.
It's not about finding
the right answer.
Once you've got an
answer or an idea,
now you got to ask
the next question,
and that's what's happening
to Alexander Graham
Bell right there.
Right? We just saw the
evolution of a thought,
and then now what happens if
-- thank you, Leanne, right.
So those diagrams, the atoms
he's looking at are coming
in at slightly different angles,
slightly different distances,
so I just think that's amazing,
and what's really fun is
that he adds in another diagram,
and he's got some more math
that he scratches out.
And I didn't add in the page
after this, but the page
after this is just math
scribbled all over it.
So seeing that evolution
of thought
and those questions coming up, I
found really, really inspiring,
and something I definitely
want my students to understand
when they're doing math.
For some context for this,
this is actually his notebook
as he's exploring ideas that
actually were the precursor
to what is now fiber
optic cable.
He was trying to figure
out how to get information
from one place to the next.
No one mentioned that he
actually invented the telephone,
which he did.
He was talk -- here you
see about the wires and how
to get the information from one
area to the next without a lot
of loss of information, so
that's what was going on here.
And I love the fact that he
asks more questions about it.
So again, with the
sequence comparison,
we're seeing an evolution of his
thought and evolving perspective
as we do the primary
source analysis.
And again, we get the nature
of STEM in here, right?
-- that it evolves over time.
First tries are not
always the best tries.
It requires revision.
And also, there's a lot of
questions that come after that,
and so there's a lot of
content we can get in this also
about physics, engineering,
and math.
And thank you, for
more links in there.
Yeah. There is a blog post
on mathematical rough drafts,
and Alexander Graham Bell's
experimental notebooks.
So to summarize,
today, we've looked
at the observe-reflect-question
protocol.
It's a way for students to
engage with primary sources,
and connects STEM ideas
across the curriculum using
observe-reflect-question,
and giving students time to
really observe and just look
at something first, and not
ask them to solve something,
not ask them a question
about it, just let them see
and explore what
they think about it.
What are they reflecting?
Why do they think that?
And then ask their
own questions.
Those are really important
ways for me as a teacher
to really get inside
students brains
and see what they're thinking
and maybe give me some ideas
about how to proceed with the
lesson, but it's also a way
for us to give the students an
opportunity to bring themselves
into the classroom, and to
think about it and say, yes,
I am part of this learning
process and part of science
and math and technology.
And then also, parallel
primary sources provide multiple
perspectives for students
to compare contrast
and sequence ideas,
and to understand the
nature of STEM fields.
Thank you, Lesley.
You like to share examples
of real scientists' notebooks
with your students so that
they can understand why you're
asking questions?
And thank you very much,
Kathy, for the extra link there
on getting started
using primary sources.
Any other thoughts or questions?
We've got some time.
So thank you for sticking with
us today, and for sticking
with these students
these last few years.
I know it hasn't been easy.
Lesley mentioned
the Ask a Librarian,
so you can certainly go to
that link to ask questions
if you can't find exactly
what you're looking for.
There's plenty of
teacher resources
on the teachers' page,
including the blog.
There's also some primary
source sets around STEM topics.
There's one about women in STEM.
There's one about
charts and graphs.
I think there's one about
natural disasters coming up.
There's a number of
primary source sets
that are already curated
that you can take a look at.
>> Kathy McGuigan: Thank
you all and good luck
for the end of the school year.
Thank you very much.