science | Thinking Through My Lens

On this last day before my students arrive for a new school year I squeezed in that last (and infrequent even during the summer) leisurely morning in bed, ran a few errands, did a bit of work unrelated to the classroom, and pushed myself to fit in some exercise. (Exercise is one practice I have yet to firmly establish in my life!) And on that brisk and fairly long walk I wondered what I would write about today. The last thing I want to do on this blog is rattle off the mundane details of my life.

Lacy (@nowawake) reminded me this morning on a conference call about her variation on a design activity I had worked on at the Intersections Design Institute in Denver where photography was used as a venue for science learning. In her variation, Lacy takes pictures that generate science questions (check #sciencequestions on twitter for some examples) as a way to create curiosity and genuine inquiry. I’ve been taking these science question photos for a while now–but haven’t posted any of them. Somehow, today seems like the right day to highlight some of these questions.

I was thinking on my walk about how I decide that I have a question and pause to take a picture. Do I ask questions about things I already have some theories about possible answers? I think I do…I think I ask questions about things I am on the verge of understanding rather than things I know nothing about. Does it take some awareness to know to ask the question?

This first science question comes from my beach walk on Sunday. I noticed this dry sand under little piles of kelp along the beach. I walk on the beach quite a bit, but haven’t noticed this phenomenon before. As you can see, the rest of the sand is damp, but directly under the kelp the sand looks dry and churned up. I have two possible hypotheses about why–either some little sea creatures hitched a ride in to the shore on the kelp and then burrow into the damp sand or some sea birds churn up the sand as they feast on sea creatures. What do you think? I’ll have to dig into this question to see what others know about this.

On today’s exercise walk I noticed this fence with many breaks and holes in it. I was wondering how the fence was so damaged and then I noticed this flower literally growing through cracks in the fence. Were the other holes caused by plant growth or something else? How long does it take for a plant to break through the wood of a fence?

I was also noticing lots of fire hydrants. Most of them are quite similar–yellow and squat with metal caps on the openings. Then I walked by this skinny hydrant (or is it a fire hydrant?), I actually had to double back to take a photo. Just ahead of me was one of the those typical squat hydrants–but this one had plastic caps instead of metal caps. What’s the reasons for these variations? And then I wondered as I continued my walk–are these science questions or are these social studies questions?

And that got me wondering about some of the bus stops I passed. I passed one with a bench and a trash can in front of it. Then a little further on I noticed a woman waiting by a bus stop–and there was neither a bench nor a trash can. So how are decisions made about which bus stops get benches and which don’t?

I love the way taking photos makes me take the time to ponder the questions that arise as I survey my world. They also give me a visual reminder to go back and explore those inquiries. How do you document your questions about the world? Do you follow those inquiries to find answers? What are you wondering about?

On my way to UCSD yesterday morning I listened to this story on our local public radio station about a zombie horror video game inspired by a nature documentary, with commentary from a local entomologist from the San Diego Natural History Museum, Michael Wall. I’m not much of a video game player, but I love the idea that a nature documentary and the very real behavior of parasites inspired the story of this game. I started to think about the ways that science and writing are natural partners and the roles that curiosity and creativity play in both.

And then I started to think about the ways that curiosity and creativity often get squished in schools in the name of supporting our learners. We’ve been reading, writing, and debating formulaic writing in the SDAWP Invitational Summer Institute this week and asking ourselves what is gained and what is lost when writers, especially young writers, are encouraged or even forced to fit their thinking and ideas into five paragraphs (or three or…) predetermined and highly structured by a formula?

I’ve heard people say that “structures” (provided by formulaic writing) free young writers from the frustration of figuring out effective organization for their ideas and their writing. But I’m guessing that neither the writer of the nature documentary nor the video game maker used a formula to craft the stories behind their movie and game. I wonder if they even thought they were writing (as in school writing) as they crafted the narrative structures that hold their work…or were they simply making and/or playing as they explored the ideas in their heads? I’m also wondering if they worked with collaborators–and how that shaped their stories and their productions. (It sounds like both making and playing to me…and fun!)

My brain is already on fast forward to the new school year as I think about how my students might be inspired to write video games and documentaries and radio podcasts like the one above and who knows what else! I know I won’t be providing any fill-in-the-blank formulas to structure their compositions. Instead, I will help them locate mentor texts (texts in the broadest sense of the word) to play with, examine, and study to figure out how they will construct their own. And I will create and compose along with them.

And for those of you who think your ideas are not clever or original or good enough, take a look at this video (thanks Kristina Campea for sharing on google+ at the #clmooc).

So what inspires your writing and creating? What structures do you depend on to move from ideas to composition?

Thinking Through My Lens

Tag Archives: science

Writing, Science, and Making