How Using Primary Sources in Science Helped Me Reshape My Definition of Primary Sources

Meetings with my librarian colleagues are usually quite amicable. Except when it comes to what makes something a primary source. Then the clashes start. I'm not kidding. There have literally been arguments where voices are raised as we've wrestled with this question as a group. I thought about those lively discussions when I recently realized that my own definition for what makes something a primary source had changed.

For the last couple of years, I had used two resources to shape my definition of a primary source. The first is from the Library of Congress. One description it gives is that primary sources are "original documents and objects created at the time under study." It also goes on to read that "They are different from secondary sources, accounts or interpretations of events created by someone without firsthand experience." The second source contradicts that somewhat. In a podcast episode from Creative Learning Factory, they focus on newspapers being a primary source. With many articles not being written by someone with firsthand experience, can we consider these primary sources? The podcast takes the position that "primary sources are either an eyewitness account or an artifact of its time." To me, if I wanted to know what a greater community would know of an event, a newspaper article would qualify as a primary source of that question.

Earlier this year, the students did an activity where they analyzed primary sources of scientists notes and writings to investigate how they organize their work and their thinking. The sources were from all different time periods and a variety of scientists. Students recognized organizational strategies of these scientists and connected them to their own writing as elementary student scientists.

During other activities where I had utilized primary sources with students, there was a focus around a date, year, or range of time. We used primary sources to focus on colonial times, the building of a American symbol, or the time when a famous individual was alive. There was a beginning date and ending date. Even when we would focus on events like Thanksgiving or Halloween, the date would be important. What was Thanksgiving like 70 years ago? How did they celebrate Halloween 100 years ago? I could even attach specific dates to these types of investigations, and more importantly, many times the dates were important for us to compare our lives with those of others or to put it into a chronological context for our understanding.

With our activity about scientists and their notes, that specific date didn't seem to matter. Instead, the moment in time mattered, that moment when the scientist was writing down his or her ideas, questions, or observations. While we had information on when those moments took place, they weren't important to the analysis of the primary source or the understanding that they were working to come to. Students didn't need the date that Alexander Graham Bell wrote about his experiment to come to understand how he decided to record his ideas and they didn't need to know the year that Leonardo da Vinci drew illustrations of a bow to compare his method to theirs.

Is this new viewpoint unique to using primary sources in certain science settings? I don't think so, but it was what moved my thinking forward. I think the same idea of a primary source not being attached to a date, but a moment in time would apply in the work our fifth graders have done when using primary sources to define geocentric and heliocentric models of the solar system. What made those resources primary sources in that case wasn't the year they were created (although you could have done another activity with that being an important factor) but that these images were products of moments when these scientists were creating or defining either a geocentric or heliocentric model of the solar system.

I realize that this original misconception was not caused by a faulty definition by the Library of Congress or a misspoken idea in a podcast. It was my interpretation of those things that was flawed. To me, that word "time" in the definitions originally meant that date or date range or era. What I failed to think about was about "time" as "moments" Those moments could be scattered over years, decades, or centuries. And artifacts could have been created in all of those moments that are connected, not by the date, but by the activity or intention by the creator of the artifact at that moment. 

I'm sure that my working definition of a primary source will continue to evolve over time. For now, I am looking forward to that next spirited discussion with my fellow librarians.

Reaction to John Stephens' The Black Reckoning (book 3 in The Books of Beginnings series)

I just finished reading an advanced copy of John Stephens' The Black Reckoning. I can't say I ran across it. It was more like I hunted it down. I'll admit that I'm a big fan of the first two books in the Book of Beginnings series, The Emerald Atlas and The Fire Chronicle, so when me asking a local bookseller about the final book in the series and the ARC showing up at her desk coincided, I knew I had to hunt it down.

Now I usually don't read second or third books in a series. As an elementary librarian, I think I need to be widely read, so I usually just read the first book so I can recommend it with some authority and then move on to the next series. After I picked up The Black Reckoning though, I had to reread the first two books in the series, not because I forgot what had happened, but just because I enjoyed the first two books so much. Neither of them disappointed the second time and either did The Black Reckoning.

The Black Reckoning picks up right where The Fire Chronicle leaves off. Emma, the youngest of the siblings, has been kidnapped, leaving Kate and Michael, along with a great supporting cast, to find her. They do find Emma, and sooner than I thought. I was glad too because it is when the three siblings are together that the story is at its best. Their unique voices can be heard and there is evidence of growth as they really begin to change, both as characters and in how they view each other, that is refreshing to see over the series of books.

Of course, there are other relationships there too. The most focused in this story is Kate's relationship with Rafe (spoiler alert!) who turns into the Dire Magnus at the end of the second book. How can this happen when it is 100 years after Kate left Rafe? You'll find out. And Michael's relationship with the elf princess? It is just as funny but a bit endearing too as Michael allows himself to be more than just embarrassed by her attention.

The fantasy element is in full force as well. The story continues with trolls, elves, and other characters from the first two books. The author also brings in giants (and their gross but funny hygiene issues) and carriadin, found in the land of the dead. Other characters pop up again as well. While I won't give away the details, the arrival and departure of the witch from The Emerald Atlas was one of my favorite parts of the book.

If you've read the first two books, you'll know that the final book in the series deals with Emma finding her magical book, referred to both as The Book of Death and The Black Reckoning. (While I'm not positive why Stephens gives the book two names, I'm guessing it has something to do with the book in the story being the title of the story itself. Watching your child read The Black Reckoning is probably more palatable than them flipping through the pages of The Book of Death.) Stephens does a good job of limiting the strengths the children have gathered along the way like the power of the two other books or their large cast of supporting characters from Dr. Pym to Gabriel.

And then there are the concerns from adults about these books. I hear that they are too predictable or borrow too much. And I wouldn't disagree with the basics of that concern. There are hints of other stories in here and you know from the beginning of the first book how this final book will end, with the three children defeating evil, the Dire Magnus. But what makes these books ones that I want to reread or hunt down the newest copy of is not the end of the story, it is the journey that John Stephens brings us on. It is the relationship of Kate, Michael, and Emma. It is great moments of dialogue, especially from Emma. It is the twists and turns and reading how these characters deal with them that makes this ride an enjoyable ending to a great series.

The Black Reckoning is scheduled to be released on April 7, 2015.

Taking Notes Like a Scientist: Using Primary Sources to Examine Note Taking Strategies

Last summer, I participated in the Library of Congress Science Seminar, a five day professional development opportunity that allowed me to begin exploring the integration of primary sources as a resource in science instruction. As part of that week, I made a plan on one way to integrate primary sources with the direction to implement the lesson during the first half of the school year.

My idea for a lesson revolved around science note booking and note taking in our school. In 3rd grade, our science teacher introduces the process. It continues through their elementary career. During a book study last year on research, using Chris Lehman’s book “Energize Research Reading and Writing”, I saw many correlations between the free form style that students use when science note booking and the introduction to note taking styles with student choice based on need emphasized in Lehman’s book.

I saw them as two styles that could complement the other. My question was how to bridge the gap between the two. While at the Seminar, I decided primary sources might be the answer. Through the use of primary sources, students could connect their own natural tendencies to organize information through science note booking with tried methods to organize information that scientists have used in the past. Instead of teachers demonstrating note taking methods, students would discover the note taking methods of actual scientists and attempt to incorporate those methods into their own note taking. These methods could transfer into note taking in other subject areas as needs arose.

During the first week of school, third grade students participated in the note booking emersion. They observed fish, plants (and all of the insects on them), and other scientific phenomena. During their excursion, many students saw some type of small eggs on melon leafs in the school garden. This caused a lot of excitement and speculation. The classroom teacher had a naturally generated question and we decided to run with it. Students would do a mini research project trying to answer their question and I would help them think about their note taking in the process.

http://www.loc.gov/item/magbell.25300102/    

Students began their study of scientists’ notes by analyzing a page from a notebook of Alexander Graham Bell. Students used a modified version of the Primary Sources Analysis Tool from Library of Congress. For the purposes of this lesson and because of time restrictions, I wanted students to focus in on what they saw as an organizational tool (Observation) and why they thought the scientist organized his information in this way (Reflection). 

Students found a great deal of organizing methods. Pages were numbered, ideas were dated and sorted into short paragraphs. There were drawings of Bell’s telephone that was labeled with letters and those corresponding letters were used in his writing about the device. And in each method, students were able to give some reflection as to the “why” of its use. “Short paragraphs are easier to read.” “If you date things, you’ll know what order you did them in.” “Labeling the picture and using the labels in his writing helps me understand what he is writing about.”

Smaller groups then continued by analyzing another note or recording method of a scientist. Students analyzed the directions for using a macaroni machine written by Thomas Jefferson. They explored the drawings for a crossbow by Leonardo da Vinci. Students even looked at more recent notes by Dave Morrison as he thought about measuring the surface temperature on Mars. 

In these other works, students noticed drawings done from different perspectives, underlined and circled words, tables, step by step directions, and different ideas for the same goal drawn side by side. In each case, students were, again, able to express an idea about why the scientist chose to organize his thinking in that way. “It makes it easier to read.” “This was probably really important.” “You can see different details when he draws it this way.”

We extended the activity by asking students to look at their initial writing and drawing from their note booking experience. Could they see similarities between their work and the work of the scientists? They shared example after example, further reinforcing themselves as scientists and their work as scientific. I also feel they saw the work they do in a school setting existing outside of and beyond school. This skill was important and was used by great minds! Finally, I asked them, “As you take more notes, either from observations or from reading or viewing images, what strategies did these scientists use to organize their information that could help you?” Many shared ideas directly from their findings through the primary source analysis.

As they moved forward with their study, I did revisit their second set of notes and there were definite similarities between their work at the scientists’ work they studied.  My hope is that this has laid a foundation and gives examples to call back to as students continue to explore note taking.

note: For anyone trying something similar, I will share that I did have to make transcripts of much of the notes because of the cursive handwriting. While students were willing to make attempts, the struggle would have slowed down the activity too much.