How to “LOUPE”

2. Today you may“walk on the back of a beetle, slide down the throat of a foxglove, wade through the hairs on a bean sprout, or traipse over the back of your own hand.” (Ruef, 2003, p. 3)

3. How to “LOUPE” • Hold the loupe so the wide end cups the eye • It must touch the bones around the eye • Close your other eye • Hold something up and bring closer to the loupe until it is focused

4. TRY IT: • Look closely at the back of your hand • Make a list of 10 things your hand reminds you of • Be prepared to share • If you get stuck, look at if from a different angle

5. What ELSE does it remind me of? What ELSE does it look like? Two Important Questions ~

6. Student Observations of Their Handclass list • A maze • Cactus • Desert sand • Crumpled paper • Pattern • Sand/sandpaper • Baby’s head with tiny hairs sprouting • Rock • Tree bark • Tree branches • Reptile skin • Close up picture of a fly • Pottery • Pencil • Pool tile • Fabric • Spider’s web • Icing on a cake • Craters

7. Sandwich Poem • Write the bones-for-a-poem list (the analogies in the forms of metaphors and similes) • Put the name of your topic as the title and the same word as the last line. • The title and last line become the “bread” of the sandwich • The sandwich is filled with analogies. • You don’t have to use every comparison from your loupe-list. • Edit and revise as needed.

8. My Hand My hand – A complex maze Like an old man’s hand. Like fish gills, And stars mixed together. Deep, deep holes, Tall mountains, Small valleys, Crevasses in the mountains. A bloody river as wide as the Red Sea, Wide rivers with under water caves, Craters made by a meteor. Looking over jagged cliffs. My hand. By Ben, 3rd grade, Decatur Private Eye

9. Increasing Scientific Literacy: Thinking By Analogy Katie Hart Denton ISD Khart@dentonisd.org

10. First, before everything else comes the seeing of nature with your own eyes, that is, experiencing it yourself. - Abraham H. Maslow Psychologist

11. “Scientific Literacy” is the knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts and process required for personal decision making, participation in civic and cultural affairs, and economic productivity. (National Research Council, 1996)

12. Scientific Literacy is also… • the skill of “reading” the natural or manmade world. • the skill of theorizing about the world by looking closely (Ruef, 2003, p. 51) The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking. -Albert Einstein

13. Analogies • Analogies are a kind of magnifier! • Analogies will become the bones-for- poems, the beginnings of short stories, naturalist essays, and more. • Thinking by analogy is the MAIN TOOL of scientist, writer, visual artist, mathematician.

14. “Scientists would get rid of all their hardware, their fancy billion dollar labs, before they could afford to get rid of this habit of mind, thinking by analogy, for it’s the way the majority of scientific breakthroughs have always come and will come.”(Ruef, 2003, p. 25)

15. Use of Analogies Examples: • Leopard seal • Catfish • Rhinoceros Beetle • Macaroni Penguins • Ringed Seals

16. Why a LOUPE? • Look closely at the world • Think by analogy • Change scale and theorize • Simple Questions to develop higher order thinking skills, creativity, and scientific literacy.

17. The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. - Albert Einstein

18. SSL (Silent Sustained Louping) • Choose an object from the basket • Create a list of at least 10 comparisons • If you finish early, continue your list. • Keep asking: • What ELSE does this remind me of? • What ELSE does it look like?

19. Corral Grass Spider’s Web Craters Watermelon Mouth talking Pound cake Yolk Honeycomb by Madison, third grade Bee hive Swiss cheese Mars Cotton candy Jelly bean Rice Krispys by Bailey, third grade Student Observations of a Sponge

20. Sandwich Poem • Write the bones-for-a-poem list (the analogies in the forms of metaphors and similes) • Put the name of your topic as the title and the same word as the last line. • The title and last line become the “bread” of the sandwich • The sandwich is filled with analogies. • You don’t have to use every comparison from your loupe-list. • Edit and revise as needed.

21. Daisies These daisies remind me of a yellow and white hat. The stems are as rough as gravel and as green as grass. Each leaf has zig-zag edges. Some stems are wavy like waves in the ocean. The pedals are shaped like small ovals and they are as white as snow. The center is like a yellow pillow. Written by Danielle, Third grade Daisies

22. Red Yucca It’s blossoms are redder than boiling lava, And the stem is darker than oak tree bark. Although it’s as tall as I, The stem is as thin as a pea pod. With leaves like a palm’s All covered with thread, While the newest blossoms as as small as an apple seed.

23. Red Yucca The flowers are shaped like a tulip, With the center golder than gold. The Red Yucca’s inside petals are a sun-shiny yellow, It’s flower is close to a hollow bucket, and a skinny wine glass, It has so many flowers and blossoms that it is like a hive full of bees. Written by Kylie, third grade

24. References Lesson adapted from Ruef, K. (2003) The Private Eye (5X): Looking and Thinking by Analogy. Lyle, Washington. For more information and order forms www.theprivateeye.com Other sources: National Research Council. (1996). National Science Education Standards. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.