Science Talk

Itzel Carrillo
SED 482

I.

Science Talk Overview

The big idea for the lesson was, the importance of the microscope invention. The
overall big idea was used to help students understand why microscopes are important
to our society and how it has benefited us. The students were going to learn how to
properly use the microscopes and view plant and animal cells under the microscopes.
The students had to be able to properly focus and identify certain structures for each
cell the observed. Before the students could start the observations I wanted them to
have a well understanding of what a microscope was and how the evolution of the
microscope helped change our medical field. I had students remain in their usual seats
and let them know that they would be discussing questions with a person to the right
of them. I started off with asking student if they knew what a microscope was. I broke
the word down into two parts for them, Micro-Scope. I then had students guess
what each part meant. The initial guiding questions lead us to the main big idea. I
wanted to students to understand that the microscope was not just a plain instrument
to view very small objects. I wanted students to understand how important the
inventions and evolution of the microscope was in the medicine filed and how it
helped us advance with medication and discover many things that we would have
never even thought could exist. I also wanted the students to understand how to use
the microscopes and the different parts of the microscope.

II.

Question Initiation
I began asking the students the questions. I started off by asking them if they knew
what a microscope was and what it did. Then in order to have a more in depth
discussion I asked an open ended question. I asked students why do you think
microscopes are important? I asked students to answer the question on their own.
They were allowed to write the answer or just think about a response for a few
minutes. After they had thought about the question on their own, I had the students
share with their partner. When students were done sharing with their partner I had a
few students share their responses. Then I asked students another more open-ended
question that would make tem think more n depth of why microscopes are a
beneficial tool in the medicine field. I asked students to think about medicine and
answer the question How do you think the microscope has benefited us? The
questions were sequenced from lower level to higher level thinking questions. I
wanted to make sure students knew what a microscope was and ten see if they knew
how it was used.

III.

Question response
I had developed to original questions to begin the discussion and then based on the
students responses I added a few additional questions. When asked why they thought
microscopes were important, most of the students response were microscopes allow

us to see small objects, that we cannot see with just our eyes. After hearing that
response, I asked them why we cared to see such small objects. If it is so small we
cannot see it with our eyes then, why would it matter? Many students brought up
bacteria and diseases, which demonstrated they were also aware that disease came
from very small organisms and bacteria was also very small to see. This lead to the
main question I wanted students to focus on. When I asked students how microscopes
have benefited us over the past years many students said that it helped us identify
many bacteria that were causing diseases. I had a student specifically mention how
microscopes help lead to the discovery of penicillin. So it lead to the discussion that
microscopes helped with the production of many antibiotics, because microscopes
helped us view the structure and functions of many small organisms. I did not
encourage students to cite evidence that is something I can keep in mind, so I know
where students are getting this information from. I did not have any student give
wrong information. I did encourage plenty of student interaction and whole class
discussion.
IV.

Student Ideas
During our science talk the students were participating in partner discussion and
whole class discussion. Based on what they shared I realized they have had previous
experience with microscopes. They were well knowledgeable of what a microscope
was and what it is used for. The students clearly responded using experience of when
they used microscopes to view small objects in other classrooms. I feel that I should
have asked students to cite their evidence, because it would have given me better
background information on where each student stands with the topic. It was nice to
hear that the students did know how important and valuable microscopes were. There
was not a single student that did not make a connection between microscopes and
medicine. Based on all of their responses I could conclude that many of their thoughts
and ideas had come from previous knowledge acquired in other science classes or
books.

V.

Relevance
The science talk was probably no really relevant for students and their daily lives but
it was relevant to how it has helped us overall find cures for many diseases. I wanted
students to see the overall relevance of the microscope to medicine. I feel that maybe
I could have asked a question more specifically related to the students that lead to the
microscope. A question I could have asked is have any of you gotten sick in the past
months? if they answer yes I could have asked, were you able to see what got you
sick? After this questions I could have introduce the microscope and discussed how
the microscope have helped us see what makes us sick and create specific medication
for it. This would have made it more relevant for the students. This would have made

student think and analyze more critically the importance of a microscope because it
relates to their individual health. I could have also provided a small activity that
students could do to relate to the main big idea. The activity could have been done in
groups which would have encouraged more student to student interaction. I feel that
my science talk was not as successful as I thought it would be. I would have liked to
have added the questions related to students past sickness to make it more relevant.
My science talk was not very long either because students answered very similarly, so
next time I can choose questions that can have multiple responses. Overall there are
many ways I can improve the science talk to make it more relevant to students and
encourage more interaction.