Notes from Janice’s Desk
I read a review about author Rebecca Stead and it brought back memories of a public speaking semin
ar I attended. The review as well as the seminar pointed out that the newspaper is a great place to find topics for novels and/or speaches. Other similaritie of the two are:
Prepare yourself by reading, reading and more reading.
A good product is the results of practice, practice and more practice. This is accomplished by sticking to the goal and not giving up.
So what does this have to do with science? EVERYTHING—The advice from the author and from the seminar are great examples of using the scientific method. Actually, I wish writers and educators would scratch out the term scientific method and replace it with Inquiry Approach, Discovery Process or anything. The scientific method has been misinterpreted by so many. Kids have had to memorize the steps of the scientific method in order and use these steps in order. Nothing could be farther from the method that scientists use.
The slide show below has the different parts of the Scientific Method. I made a collage of them so there would not be a specific order. As a rule the order is generally obvious when you are investigating something, but first you have to be familiar with the possible process steps. I’ll make a point to identify these often.
The review about Rebecca Stead was written by Ruth A for her elementary writing class. After viewing the slide show, read the article and examples of how the Scientific Method and Literture Process relate.
More Late,
Janice VanCleave