I am utterly taken with this website that features drawings of scientists by kids before and after meeting them. The seventh graders visited a Fermilab site, and it’s amazing to see some of the changes.
While some of the kids had a good sense of what a scientist may look like before the visit, quite a few kids wrote things like “scientists live in their own world,” and described them as ” kind of crazy, talking always quickly.” Or that he has “hair standing straight up.” Back to the Future, anyone?
After having visited actual scientists, I think my favorite line came from Amanda who described, “anyone can be a scientist. I saw people walking around in sweatshirts and jeans. Who knows? Maybe I can be a scientist.”
Share it with your kids. Or just ask them to draw their own “before” photo before showing them the site. I think they’ll like it.
Visit the Fermilab Ed Site to check out the drawings from the 7th grade scientist project.
[h/t david wescott, joe rojas-burke ]
