What does a scientist look like? A kid!

Amy enjoyed teaching 11 classrooms of kindergarteners and 2nd graders at a local elementary school, in partial fulfillment of the lab’s commitment to substantial outreach in conjunction with our NSF grant. She asked the kids:
what do scientists do? (lots of action words that happy kids act out!)
what does a scientist look like? (the kid in the mirror! – the kindergarteners drew their ideas)
what kinds of questions do scientists ask? (the Q words minus “why”)
what is a cell? (the building block of living things)
can you see a cell? (sure, but many can’t be resolved without a microscope!)
And then she walked the kids through these broad steps of animal development:
a very big cell
cleavages
rearrangements
animal growth
And the kids did the first 3 steps hands-on with playdough!
Take home messages:
teachers are HEROS!
kids are scientists!