Week One: What Does a Scientist Look Like and What Do They Do?

I want to share with you some very nice drawings from an activity I did the third day of school.  I called it, "What does a scientist look like and what do they do?"  Yes, I know there is a bit of a grammar issue with that question but I didn't want to cause any additional bias among my students by say "and what does he/she do?"  After the students posted their drawings, we did a "Gallery Walk" looking for similarities and differences among the drawings.  Out of 132 completed drawings roughly 90% were drawn as men with crazy wild hair blowing things up as they wore a lab coat.  I teach 9th graders I expected them to have a better  perception of scientists than they have.  Do you do anything to dispel the stereotypical scientist in your students minds?

  We discussed many nature of science concepts during the week and will continue these next week.  "Drops on a Penny, Apple Observations, Candle Observations, Ghost Crystals and Gummi Bears", gonna be a hugely busy week.