Explore Dr. Jahren's Pathway

Lesson 1: Anyone Can Be a Scientist

We all have ideas about what it means to be a scientist. In this lesson, students explore their initial assumptions, examine Dr. Jahren's journey from curious child to professional scientist, and build a more mature understanding of what a scientist is and does in the context of their own lives.

In this lesson students get warmed up thinking about "who is a scientist" through a series of images, before analyzing an interview with Dr. Hope Jahren using a close reading strategy. The students will produce a timeline of Dr. Jahren's journey from a young girl to a world-class scientist. Students are invited to develop a timeline of their own life events as they consider how STEM is relevant in their lives and future path. They wrap up the lesson with a video featuring Dr. Jahren talking about how scientists have been portrayed to the public.

Connections to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)

Aligning with 3-dimensional teaching and learning

Science and Engineering Practice 8: Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information.

Any education in science and engineering needs to develop students' ability to read and produce domain-specific text. As such, every science or engineering lesson is in part a language lesson, particularly reading and producing the genres of texts that are intrinsic to science and engineering." (NRC Framework, 2012, p. 76)

Nature of Science is a human endeavor.

Scientific knowledge is a result of human endeavor, imagination, and creativity. Individuals and teams from many nations and cultures have contributed to science and to advances in engineering. Scientists' backgrounds, theoretical commitments, and fields of endeavor influence the nature of their findings. Technological advances have influenced the progress of science and science has influenced advances in technology. Science and engineering are influenced by society and society is influenced by science and engineering." (NGSS Appendix H, 2013, p. 6)

Warm-Up Activity: "Draw a Scientist"

For a "Draw a Scientist" lesson plan from the California Academy of Sciences click here.

If you ask your students to describe a scientist doing science, what might they say? Would they describe a scientist like Dr. Jahren? Or might they describe someone more like scientists they've seen in movies, comic books, and other media? Would they describe a person they know? Would the person they describe be someone they'd want to be like?

In this lesson, students are introduced to Dr. Hope Jahren through her short video: "How has your science changed your view of the world?" Students then will practice close reading skills on a biographical article written by Dr. Jahren. The article takes readers on a journey from her early days in her father's laboratory/classroom to her recent career as a biogeochemist leading a research team in her own laboratory. As they read, students collect data from the article that they can use to build a timeline. Later, students revisit the timeline as they think about their own future and interests.

Ask students to draw a scientist. Have them write a short description of their drawing that tells a little bit about the different parts of the drawing. Discuss these drawings, and help students consider what the drawings suggest about things such as what scientists do, how scientists work, where scientists work, and who can be a scientist.

Activity 1: Introduction to Dr. Hope Jahren

For a biographical article about Hope Jahren titled "My Family, My Science" click here.

As an introduction to Dr. Hope Jahren, encourage your students to watch Video 1: "How has your science changed your view of the world?"

Activity 2: A Scientist's Timeline

To make an editable copy of a Google Spreadsheet timeline template click here.
For a lesson plan describing the close read pedagogy: Informational Text Strategies: Close Reading click here

So that students can collect data that will be used to construct a timeline of Dr. Jahren's life, guide students in conducting a close read of the brief biography "My Family, My Science."

Activity 3: Developing a Scientist's Timeline

From the data that students collect in the close read of her biography, they can develop a timeline of Dr. Jahren's journey from a young girl to a practicing scientist using the template provided or another timeline app.

An example of a finished timeline is shown below.

For additional tools that can be used to construct a timeline, see:

Timelines can be created using several applications, such as Timeline Editor, Google Drawing, or an Add-on such as Lucidchart.

This timeline activity is intended to enable students to see that the life of a scientist is not so different from their own lives in many ways.

Activity 4: Personal Timeline

Now that they have considered Dr. Jahren's timeline, students can think about their own interests and the events that may have helped them develop those interests. Then students can project themselves into a possible future and record their ideas on their timeline. What might they see themselves doing as a result of their interests? What new interests might they develop? What role might science and other STEM fields play in those pursuits? How could a person's pursuits be affected by science even if they are not going to become a professional scientist or other STEM worker?

Ask each student to create a timeline for their own past and possible future.

To hear Dr. Jahren's thoughts on how scientists are sometimes portrayed, watch Video 5: "Do you think there's a dispassionate, mechanical caricature of scientists that is served to the public?"

Do you think there's a dispassionate, mechanical caricature of scientist that is served to the public?

Activity 5: Reflection activity

Now that students have had an opportunity to journey along the pathway of a scientist like Dr. Jahren, it's time to reflect again on their personal perceptions of scientists. Consider the images in this array of places where scientists might work.