How do Scientists Communicate?

1. How do Scientists Communicate? Presented by Kristin Majda kmajda@yahoo.com

2. How do Scientists Communicate? Introduction This presentation intends to: • Describe the roles of primary and secondary sources in the classroom • Demonstrate how to incorporate primary and secondary sources into K-12 and higher education curricula • Give teachers an opportunity to examine examples of primary and secondary sources and reflect on how to best incorporate them into their curricula

3. How do Scientists Communicate? 5,000 years ago 30,000 years ago 15,000 years ago Introduction The foundation of technology is the ability to communicate learned information from one generation to the next

4. How do Scientists Communicate? 600 years ago 3,000 years ago 1,500 years ago Introduction The foundation of technology is the ability to communicate learned information from one generation to the next

5. How do Scientists Communicate? Introduction The foundation of technology is the ability to communicate learned information from one generation to the next Today

6. How do Scientists Communicate? Modern Primary Sources Introduction Scientists communicate in writing: • Lab notebooks / journals • Peer-reviewed articles • Posters • Databases Scientists communicate verbally: • Lectures, colloquia, conferences • Interviews • Collaboration

7. How do Scientists Communicate? • Convert complex technical information into “user-friendly” resources • Primary Secondary Source Source • Combine information from multiple sources Primary Source Primary Source Secondary Source Primary Source Primary Source Primary Source Primary Source Introduction Secondary Sources • News stories and articles • Essays and editorials • Reviews • Text books • Science literature

8. How do Scientists Communicate? In the Classroom Classroom Resources • Textbooks and guidebooks • Editorials, essays, reviews • Fiction Literature • Nonfiction Literature • Peer reviewed journal articles • Online databases and bioinformatics tools • Secondary Sources • Summarize and integrate science concepts • Engage learners • Apply science to real life • Primary Sources • Develop technical reading and writing skills • Develop critical thinking skills • Promote a true understanding of the process of scientific research and discovery

9. How do Scientists Communicate? Editorials, Essays, Reviews • Use to supplement textbooks • Extend and enhance learning • More in-depth applications to real life • Often more difficult to understand than the textbook • Provide a scaffold for Bloom’s Taxonomy The role of the teacher is to use leading questions to: • Help students compare and contrast what they learned from their textbook and in class to what they learned in the article • Address the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy

10. How do Scientists Communicate? Fiction and Nonfiction Literature • Use in place of or to supplement textbooks • Often easier to understand • Better engages reader • More in-depth applications to real life The role of the teacher is to use leading questions to: • Help students identify and scaffold science concepts • Help students identify parts of the story that are not scientifically accurate • Build on story background knowledge to teach new concepts and address the progressive levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy

11. How do Scientists Communicate? Fiction Literature Let’s look at some examples • Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White (elementary) • There’s a Hair in My Dirt by Gary Larson (K-12) Other Good Resources • “Sid the Science Kid” books and programs (early elementary) • “The Cat in the Hat” science series (early elementary) • “The Magic School Bus” series (elementary) • “Magic Treehouse” series (elementary and middle school)

12. How do Scientists Communicate? Nonfiction Literature Let’s look at some examples • Build It! By Linda Ward Beech (early elementary)(from The National Geographic Experience) • Here is the Coral Reef by Madeleine Dunphy (elementary) • Genome by Matt Ridley (high school) • The Secret Life of Germs by Philip Tierno (high school) Other Good Resources • The National Geographic Experience (K-5 curriculum) – gets kids journaling starting in kindergarten • Magic Tree House Field Guides (elementary and middle school) • Biographies of scientists (written for your grade level) • See examples of books on table for high school students

13. How do Scientists Communicate? Nonfiction Literature Leading Questions for The Secret Life of Germs • Help students identify and scaffold science concepts • Help students identify parts of the story that are not scientifically accurate • Build on story background knowledge to teach new concepts and address the progressive levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy Questions are posted on CSTA website I created PowerPoint presentations that provided the answers in lecture format building on the concepts learned in the book

14. How do Scientists Communicate? Reciprocal Reading Strategies Peer Reviewed Journal Articles • Incorporate new discoveries into the curriculum • Develop technical reading skills • Chunk material into “bite sized” pieces • Use context clues to learn new vocabulary • Clarify unclear information • Summarize and connect major ideas • Develop technical writing skills • Student-written summaries, essays, and reports

15. How do Scientists Communicate? Peer Reviewed Journal Articles • Promote a true understanding of experimental design and scientific research, and develop critical thinking skills • What is the problem/question being investigated? Why is it important? What previous research does this investigation rely on? • What is the hypothesis? What were other possible hypotheses? • What lab methods were used? How did each contribute to the experiment? What kind of data did each produce? • What were the controls and variables? Are there factors that were not controlled for? How could the experiment have been improved? • Is the data statistically significant? Is the conclusion supported by the data? In what other ways could the data be interpreted? • How do the results advance scientific understanding in this field? What future experiments should be conducted?

16. How do Scientists Communicate? Peer Reviewed Journal Articles • I hand pick less complex articles to ease students into reading and interacting with these • Insulin Activity (Preproinsulin journal article and activity instructions have been uploaded to CSTA website) • Science magazine has some resources for high school teachers to use journal articles in the classroom • Members can download all previous content

17. How do Scientists Communicate? Online Databases and Bioinformatic Tools • Enhance student understanding of genetics, biotechnology, bioinformatics, evolution, and other related disciplines • Enable student to interact with real life data and tools • Enable students to develop animations for their reports Instructions are posted on CSTA for building: • Phylogenetic Trees • 3D Protein Models

18. How do Scientists Communicate? Creating Phylogenetic Trees • Molecular phylogenetics attempts to determine the rates and patterns of change occurring in DNA and proteins and to reconstruct the evolutionary history of genes and organisms • A Phylogenetic Tree is an illustration that shows the evolutionary relationship among groups of organisms • Many proteins are conserved across species with differing degrees of variation • Good for linking geneticsand cell biology with evolution

19. How do Scientists Communicate? 2) Enter the protein you want to find in the search box and click “Go” Creating Phylogenetic Trees 1) Go to www.expasy.ch/sprot/sprot-retrieve-list.html

20. How do Scientists Communicate? 3) Find the set of proteins you are interested in and record their accession numbersIBP1_Human (PO8833) accession number Creating Phylogenetic Trees

21. How do Scientists Communicate? 5) Select the FASTA button Creating Phylogenetic Trees 4) Go back to www.expasy.ch/sprot/sprot-retrieve-list.html

22. How do Scientists Communicate? 6) Enter the accession numbers for each gene/protein, one per line 7) Click the “Create FTP file” button Creating Phylogenetic Trees

23. How do Scientists Communicate? 8) Select all of the resulting FASTA sequences and paste them into a word processor document Creating Phylogenetic Trees 9) Rename the sequences to match the animals they came from

24. How do Scientists Communicate? 11) Cut the renamed sequences from the word processor document and paste them into the window at the bottom of the page, then click “Run” Creating Phylogenetic Trees 10) Go to http://www.ebi.ac.uk/Tools/clustalw2/index.html

25. How do Scientists Communicate? Creating Phylogenetic Trees 12) Click “Start Jalview”

26. How do Scientists Communicate? 13) Remove gap-rich regions if necessary (using the mouse to select and delete them) Creating Phylogenetic Trees

27. How do Scientists Communicate? 14) Generate the tree by selecting the menus and commands shown Creating Phylogenetic Trees

28. How do Scientists Communicate? Creating Phylogenetic Trees