RachaelTarshesDecember 9, 2003Multicultural Lesson Plan

Part 1

For my field experience I observed 6th grade physical science classes. The school I observed at had noticeable diversity, but I never bothered with exact numbers. My teachers classes had anywhere between 5-10 students of color on average. One class in particular that I wanted to address was a class where there are three hearing impaired students (two boys and one girl). I felt the students’ participation in class was somewhat limited. What I thought was most interesting is that all three students were placed together and when all of the other students got to switch seats, these children were still required to sit together.

All three had hearing aid devices, one used an electronic microphone given to the teacher that amplified into his ear, and there was an aid for all three that signed what the teacher would say. After observing a week or so of classes, I asked the aid who exactly she was there for because I did not really notice any of the children looking at her too often. She told me she was there for all of them but one of the boys gave her the most attention and added that they all had some level of partial hearing.

For my lesson plan, I thought I would challenge myself a little to find a hearing impaired scientist thinking that perhaps it would help these three students feel like science was a field that they could more actively explore. Along the lines of the many multicultural classroom construction works I have read, I wanted to link a deaf scientist to a specific topic that could be taught to the students in order for them to see a positive role model from the aspect of disability.

In my search for a deaf scientist, I also tried to narrow my search by steering clear of white, male, Europeans. This made my search slightly more difficult. I had a hard time finding adequate information on many of the researchers I found in the databases. I wanted to actually include some aspect of the scientist’s greater contributions and not just that they do science and they are deaf. This is an issue that was brought up by my Science Methods TA. She made the comment that when she tried to work out a student research paper she realized that she had to do a lot of research to find scientist of color and female scientists. In realizing this, she determined that her students would have the same problem. She decided to give the students lists of scientists she could find information on. What her take home message was was that she made sure to make a point in her class that it is hard to find information on scientists of color and female scientists and asks her students to address in their papers how the scientist they chose from the list was received during the time and what the social implications are for the fact that none of these scientists would be mentioned in their text books.

During my observations the students were working on a density unit and while I feel that the importance of density could be implied to many of the scientists I found who were hearing impaired, I wanted something more. I really wanted to go for a lesson plan where I would not just be telling the students, “Density is important to scientists who can’t hear too”. I want to tell my students, “This science made advances in their field…and they did it while having to deal with the added pressures of being hearing impaired”.

Once I found a scientist that interested me, I tried to find a lesson plan. Since teaching is a lot of borrowing I looked at a great science website to try to find labs that would go along with my scientist, astrophysicist Annie Jump Cannon. In a practical setting, I would give my students the background reading on Miss. Cannon first and then jump into the labs as a way showing then what kind of work she did. After completing the labs I would ask the students some discussion questions like: How was Miss. Cannon received as a scientist? Why do you think that was? Why were her discoveries important to science? How do you think her work influences us today? What were some of the barriers she faced? What role could a male or not hearing-impaired scientist play to support her?

Part 2

Lesson Plan for Sun, Spectra and Stars Unit

[Borrowed from NSTA at

Activity: Fingerprints of the Elements

Objectives

  • Students will explain how variable stars, like the Sun can be classified using their “spectral fingerprints”.
  • Students will interpret a star spectrum and determine its composition of different elements.

Materials Needed

Gas discharge tubes: hydrogen, mercury, helium, neon. Energy source: telsa coil or special apparatus for discharge tubes. [Additional materials listed on following page.]

Multicultural Tie –In

Background reading on Annie Jump Cannon would be included and would be presented to students before doing this lab. Information is from the Annie Jump Cannon home page that can be found at:

AnnieJump Cannon

Annie Jump Cannon was born in Dover, Delaware on December 11, 1863. She was the eldest of three daughters. WilsonCannon was a prosperous shipbuilder and state senator. Her mother MaryJump was his second wife. Like outstanding woman astronomer, HenriettaP.Leavitt, Annie suffered a handicap in her youth. She was very hard of hearing. Despite her handicap she led a relatively normal like and ultimately achieved extraordinary success. Annie's interest in astronomy was first sparked by her mother, when as a young girl taught her the constellations. At WellesleyCollege she pursued these interests, learning physics, astronomy, even how to make spectroscopic measurements. After she graduated from Wellesley Annie returned home to Delaware and was a dutiful daughter. She also became an expert in the new field of photography. Annie loved to travel and in 1892 she traveled through Europe taking pictures with her new box camera. After she returned home Annie created a booklet of photos and prose from her trip. It was published by the Blair Company and was used as a souvenir for the Chicago World Fair in 1893. It was titled "In the Footsteps of Columbus". While at home Annie became unhappy with the way her life was heading and wrote this in her journal.

I am sometimes very dissatisfied with my life here. I do want to accomplish something, so badly. There are so many things that I could do if I only had the money. And when I think that I might be teaching and making money, and still all the time improving myself it makes me feel unhappy and as if I were not doing all that I can.

After her mother's death in 1894 Annie returned to Wellesley as an assistant in the physics department and became a "special student" of astronomy at Radcliffe. In 1896 she took part in the first x-ray experiments in this country and began her work at the Harvard College Observatory. This is where her career as an astronomer really began! In 1896 Annie Jump Cannon was hired by ProfessorEdwardCharlesPickering, director of the Harvard College Observatory to catalogue variable stars and classify the spectra of southern stars. There were many women on staff there. They were referred to as "computers" because they handled star classification and complex data reduction. They were paid 50 cents an hour! The other women who worked there as assistants were referred to as "recorders" because they recorded the data.

Althought astrophysics and stellar classification by spectra was relatively new Annie was a natural. In an article Annie Jump Cannon: Classifier of the Stars which appeared in the Wellesley Magazine Barbara Welther writes about Annie's great talent. "MissCannon's keep visual memory as well as her patience and discipline particularly qualified her to sort out these line patterns and to place each star in its proper category." "Therefore, when MissCannon was appointed curator of observational photographs at the observatory in 1911, she began systematically examining these plates (photographic plates) to classify all the stars down to the ninth magnitude - some quarter of a million objects in all. The speed with which MissCannon worked was phenomenal. She classified 5,000 stars per month between 1911 and 1915. To keep such a pace she organized the work so that she would examine the photographic plate and call out an alphabetical designation for each stellar spectrum to an assistant who would record it in a notebook set up for this purpose. For sparsely populated regions of the sky, MissCannon achieved a rate of more than 3 stars a minute. For denser regions her rate was halved. In her record book she noted the date and time that she began and ended each classification session. Although she was modest about her remarkable talent, she obviously took a deep inner pride in performing efficiently and effectively. Years later if queried about the classification of any star, she could duplicate her original estimate to within a tenth of a category's subdivision! Although she had completed classifying the 225,300 stellar spectra by 1915, it took several more years to bring her work to publication. The stars had to be properly identified and the positions and magnitudes verified with other catalogues of the time. Therefore the first volume of The Henry Draper Catalogue containing her work was not published until 1918, and the ninth volume finally became available in 1924."

Her hard work was celebrated by a number of honors. In addition to her academic honors she won several prizes. The American Association of University Women annually presents the Annie Jump Cannon Award to a woman beginning in the field of astronomy. She also was voted one of the 12 greatest living women in America in 1923. She was also presented the Draper Award by the National Academy of Sciences.

Finally in 1938 she received a permanent position at the Harvard College Observatory.
Annie Jump Cannon became the world's expert in stellar classification, as well as developing and fine tuning the Harvard system of classification that is studied by astronomy students today (OBAFGKM). “Oh be a fine girl – Kiss me!” This phrase is a mnemonic device used by students and astronomers to learn the spectral classification of stars developed by Annie Jump Cannon. So what does this classification sequence mean?

It is mainly based on temperature. The O stars are the bluest and the hottest stars, and the M stars are the coolest red stars. The stars are the beginning of the sequence are called "early-type" stars and at the end, "late type" stars. With in each type there are subdivisions by taking the letter and adding decimals, such as B0-B9 stars. As we know from work done by Annie Jump Cannon, different temperatures cause the distinction in star spectra due to electrons occupying different orbitals in atoms of the atmospheres of the stars. Classifications of spectral lines are also due to the composition of the stars and can be quite complicated. Below is a table that lays out the Harvard system of spectral classification.

Part 3

  • The biggest question I have about multicultural education, and namely content integration, is how do I avoid presenting a “Multicultural Scientist” as more then a “token” for their culture?
  • Could students, like the deaf students in the class I observed, be offended or embarrassed by the highlighting of their differences?
  • In constructing a multicultural classroom where all students feel they are free to learn, how can address all of the different issues of culture that might be relevant to my students?
  • How will I be able to identify whose voice isn’t being heard? How can I determine why?
  • Will my students understand the implications of scientists of different cultures not being given equal representation?
  • Will I be in a school setting that will allow for cultural acceptance?
  • Will I face opposition from parents, students, school officials?
  • Will I be able to construct a truly equitable learning environment for my students?
  • Will I be able to purge my science instruction and content of all elitism?

Part 4

Resources

Lesson

  • NSTA – SS& C 949 “Sun, Spectra, and Stars.” (I used Activty#3 and Assessment #2)

Hearing Impaired Students

  • Deaf Men and Women in Science -- Sci.gallaudet.edu/DS/
  • Deaf Scientists --
  • Silence of the Spheres: The Deaf Experience in the History of Science. Harry Lang. Greewood Publishing Group
  • Deaf Persons in the Arts and Sciences: A Biogeographical Dictionary. HarryLang and BonnieMeath-Lang.

Other Students

  • Association of Multicultural Scientists --
  • Minority Scientists and Inventors --
  • Science Learning for All: Celebrating Cultural Diversity. NSTA Press
  • “Multicultural Science Education” --
  • “Less talk, more action, for multicultural science” -
  • Multicultural Education: Issues and Innovations. Ed. JohnSherwood
  • At the Essence of Learning: Multicultural Education. GenevaGay
  • You Can’t Say You Can’t Play. VivianGussinPaley
  • Culture and Power in the Classroom. AntoniaDarder
  • Multicultural Science and Math Connections: Middle School Projects and Activities.
    BeatriceLumpkin and DorothyStrong. Walch Reproducible Books. Portland, Maine:

Walch, 1995.

Suggestions

  • Never stop educating yourself on different cultures.
  • Incorporate active reflection of how science makes a difference in the lives of your students and society as a whole.
  • Integrate contributions of scientists of color and women into the curriculum.
  • Use student vocabulary – have them explain science theories to you in their words.
  • Find ways to display science through different cultures – posters, etc.
  • Be willing to adapt your teaching methods to fit the different learning styles of your students.
  • Focus on the 5 dimensions of multicultural education when designing curriculum, lessons, assignments, your teaching style, and your classroom.
  • Think strategically about your students and their differences and different needs.
  • Additional issues to think about: classroom interaction and atmostphere, history of the domain, curriculum materials, attributions for success and confidence, testing and assessment, norms and expectations.