Science 9: Science Interview Assignment 2016-2017

Purpose of Assignment:

  1. To introduce topics of the Science 9 curriculum
  2. To learn and to engage with scientists,or professionals, within our community

The goal of this assignment is for students to research different career choices within the science realm and, more specifically, within the Science 9 curriculum. Students will choose a career and find a scientist that they will interview covering the seven topics listed below. Students will create a slide in the class Google Slide presentation to present the information to the rest of the class. (this must be put in your Science folder!) Prepare a 2 (or 3) minute presentation for the class. For this assignment, students will be working in pairs.

The Science 9 curriculum covers the following areas of Science. When you choose your scientist, be sure to choose someone who works within one of these areas!

  1. Biology
  2. Chemistry
  3. Electricity
  4. Ecology

Before your interview:

  1. Contact the scientist (or a professional) you would like to interview, introduce yourself and the assignment. If need be, make sure they are not completing the interview already for other grade 9 students (this may occur if you choose someone within the Collingwood community). The interview may be face-to-face, a phone/Skype conversation or sending questions via email. Acknowledge that they have a busy schedule. If the interview is a conversation, be flexible when finding a time for the interview. Suggest times that work for you and try to book about 20 minutes.
  2. Research your interviewee, if possible. If not, research their scientist role in general so you have some background ideas of their career choice.
  3. If the interview is a conversation, bring what tools you need to record the conversation. If in person, we do not recommend taking notes on a laptop: writing on a tablet or notepad is less obtrusive.

During the interview:

  1. Re-introduce the assignment and your motivation
  2. Have your list of questions ready (see below for topics to generate questions from)
  3. Record notes from your conversation (you will be handing these in)
  4. Thank the interviewee for their time at the end of the interview (you can always email them after as well).

Topics to cover during the interview:

  1. A day in the life of…
  2. What they enjoy about their job.
  3. What they find challenging about their job
  4. What training/schooling did you do to be qualified for their job
  5. Why they became interested in this job
  6. How they use science in their job. (ex. observing, inferring, predicting, classifying, making models, etc.)
  7. How human values influence the science in their job

After the Interview:

  1. Create a Google Slide presentation, one per group.
  2. Be sure to include photos and not too much text (remember that you can expand on your points throughout your presentation).
  3. Prepare a two or three-minute dialogue with the class summarizing your findings and a synopsis of the interview.

Marking Scheme:

Area / Scale (For students to check where they achieved)

1 10 / Total (For teachers)
Interview (Questions & notes submitted) / 10
Slide presentation
(well laid out, neat, photos, amount of text) / 10
Class presentation (well spoken, engaging, thorough) / 10
Total / 30

The “Interview-A-Scientist” assignment is due on ______.

Good luck!